Trump Administration - Festering Skidmarks

[goldenvalley]

May 3, 2022 13:02:54 GMT andydp said:

As we all have surmised, Pres Trump's "handlers" don't want him anywhere near a stenographer.  Like the philosophers tell us, once you say it, you can't take it back.  I really feel sad for the people at The Onion, who can't come up with anything this bananas. (<Note how I stuck a fruit metaphor in.)


'Wholly inappropriate': Trump lawyers scrambled to remove some of his deposition answers from lawsuit

According to a report from the Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery, attorneys for former President Donald Trump frantically attempted to some answers the former president made in a deposition removed from a court filing because they felt his own wordswould be "prejudicial" to his defense.

In the deposition linked to a lawsuit accusing the former president of ordering security officials to rough up protesters at Trump Tower in 2015, Trump expressed his fears that his foes could hurl fruit at him, and described the projectiles as "very dangerous stuff."
According to the former president, the "dangerous stuff" encompassed "pineapples, tomatoes, bananas."

When pressed about tomatoes being thrown at him, Trump then responded, "It’s worse than tomato, it’s other things also. But tomato, when they start doing that stuff, it’s very dangerous. There was an alert out that day.” ***


www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/wholly-inappropriate-trump-lawyers-scrambled-to-remove-some-of-his-deposition-answers-from-lawsuit/ar-AAWSdTa?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=413cc12a02704268be6db218cf63ce77

***  Who could have guessed "APB" stands for "Avoid Projectile Bananas"

Trump's answers are his way of showing contempt for the whole proceeding.  It's his building, his employees, this lawsuit against him is BS so he gives BS answers.  And then his lawyers, who surely know what they're getting themselves into when they agree to work for him, bill mega hours trying to straighten out the mess.  And probably, ultimately, they won't get paid for it.

[pnwguy]

It's not only fruits that are dangerous. Dumpster's mushroom will continue to damage humanity from his spawn.

[goldenvalley]

Here we go again...a book by a former Trump Administration member. This time it's the Defense Secretary and he tells us about the crazy ideas Trump had that he, Mark Esper, saved us from.  So nice of him to put it all in a book instead of telling us as it was happening...enabled Trump to run again in 2020.  See the last paragraph in the quoted section...

President Donald J. Trump in 2020 asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States’ involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir.

Those remarkable discussions were among several moments that Mr. Esper described in the book, “A Sacred Oath,” as leaving him all but speechless when he served the 45th president.

Mr. Esper, the last Senate-confirmed defense secretary under Mr. Trump, also had concerns about speculation that the president might misuse the military around Election Day by, for instance, having soldiers seize ballot boxes. He warned subordinates to be on alert for unusual calls from the White House in the lead-up to the election.

“I felt like I was writing for history and for the American people,” said Mr. Esper, who underwent the standard Pentagon security clearance process to check for classified information. He also sent his writing to more than two dozen four-star generals, some cabinet members and others to weigh in on accuracy and fairness.

Pressed on his view of Mr. Trump, Mr. Esper — who strained throughout the book to be fair to the man who fired him while also calling out his increasingly erratic behavior after his first impeachment trial ended in February 2020 — said carefully but bluntly, “He is an unprincipled person who, given his self-interest, should not be in the position of public service.”

[LFC]

That f***ing idiot wanted to launch missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs and thought it could actually be kept secret. It just shows how dangerous a very stupid person with money and ruthlessness can be.

Esper Tells All

President Trump asked then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper at least twice during the summer of 2020 if it were possible for the U.S. to fire missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs,” Esper writes in his upcoming book, per an excerpt reported by the New York Times.

• Trump also believed that the U.S. government’s involvement in firing those missiles could somehow be kept secret, saying “no one would know it was us,” according to Esper’s book.

• Quick reminder: Trump also had asked Esper why he couldn’t “just shoot” the George Floyd protesters in 2020, per Axios’ previous report on Esper’s upcoming memoir.

[goldenvalley]

May 6, 2022 16:58:35 GMT LFC said:

That f***ing idiot wanted to launch missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs and thought it could actually be kept secret. It just shows how dangerous a very stupid person with money and ruthlessness can be.

Esper Tells All

President Trump asked then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper at least twice during the summer of 2020 if it were possible for the U.S. to fire missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs,” Esper writes in his upcoming book, per an excerpt reported by the New York Times.

• Trump also believed that the U.S. government’s involvement in firing those missiles could somehow be kept secret, saying “no one would know it was us,” according to Esper’s book.

• Quick reminder: Trump also had asked Esper why he couldn’t “just shoot” the George Floyd protesters in 2020, per Axios’ previous report on Esper’s upcoming memoir.

I want to know the story of the MOAB blowing up so Trump could tell President Xi about it at dinner. I've been waiting for years for the military's thinking on why they did it.  

[pnwguy]

May 6, 2022 16:58:35 GMT LFC said:

That f***ing idiot wanted to launch missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs and thought it could actually be kept secret. It just shows how dangerous a very stupid person with money and ruthlessness can be.

• Quick reminder: Trump also had asked Esper why he couldn’t “just shoot” the George Floyd protesters in 2020, per Axios’ previous report on Esper’s upcoming memoir.

And why not?  His base doesn't consider blacks, and their Democrat supporters, to be completely human (3/5ths is about right).  They are Economic Property, and plantation owners occasionally had to sacrifice their property to keep the rest of them in line.  Can't let them get "uppity".

[LFC]

May 6, 2022 18:39:47 GMT pnwguy said:

And why not?  His base doesn't consider blacks, and their Democrat supporters, to be completely human (3/5ths is about right).  They are Economic Property, and plantation owners occasionally had to sacrifice their property to keep the rest of them in line.  Can't let them get "uppity".

Seriously. And speaking of "economic property" why isn't anybody standing up for reparations to the poor, poor descendants of the slave owners? Won't somebody stand up for those who forcefully had their property taken away from them?

[LFC]

Donald Trump: fascist, childish, and dangerous.

President Donald Trump demanded that the military recall two retired four-star officers who criticized him so they could be court-martialed, a new book says.

According to a copy of ex-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s memoir, A Sacred Oath, obtained by TPM, Trump demanded that former Gen. Stan McChrystal and former Navy Admiral William H. McRaven be recalled into active duty so that they could be court-martialed for criticizing the President.

“So disloyal,” the book recounts Trump complaining to Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley.

The effort began in May 2020, the book says, after articles appeared in various right-wing news outlets claiming that McChrystal was advising the Democratic Party on ways to use artificial intelligence to damage Trump’s re-election effort. One Breitbart article from the time accused McChrystal of participating in an effort to “track down and counter Trump supporters on social media.”

“This spun the president up,” Esper wrote.

This is the hero of the Constitution loving MAGAts. Private social media company blocking dangerous lies? "AAAAAHHHH!!!! THE FIRST AMENDMENT!!!! FREEDUMB OF SPEECH!!!!" A U.S. president manipulating the rules to put a retired officer on trial and destroy him for actual protected speech? "Weeeelllll, maybe he shunt a' said that."

Trump also purportedly contemplated adding McRaven to the court-martial plan. McRaven was an outspoken critic of Trump during his administration, writing in an October 2019 op-ed in the New York Times that the U.S. was “under attack” by Trump.

“The president told Milley and me that he ‘want[ed] to call them [McChrystal and McRaven] back to active duty and court-martial them’ for what they said,” the book reads.

Esper wrote that he and Milley tried to dissuade Trump from going through with the plan, telling him that the plan would backfire.

But, per Esper, Trump only relented after Milley “promis[ed] that he would personally call the officers and ask them to dial it back.”

McChrystal, reached by email, told TPM that “there was no call I remember — and I would have remembered that.”

[pnwguy]

May 6, 2022 20:23:31 GMT LFC said:

Donald Trump: fascist, childish, and dangerous.

President Donald Trump demanded that the military recall two retired four-star officers who criticized him so they could be court-martialed, a new book says.

According to a copy of ex-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s memoir, A Sacred Oath, obtained by TPM, Trump demanded that former Gen. Stan McChrystal and former Navy Admiral William H. McRaven be recalled into active duty so that they could be court-martialed for criticizing the President.

“So disloyal,” the book recounts Trump complaining to Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley.

The effort began in May 2020, the book says, after articles appeared in various right-wing news outlets claiming that McChrystal was advising the Democratic Party on ways to use artificial intelligence to damage Trump’s re-election effort. One Breitbart article from the time accused McChrystal of participating in an effort to “track down and counter Trump supporters on social media.”

“This spun the president up,” Esper wrote.

This is the hero of the Constitution loving MAGAts. Private social media company blocking dangerous lies? "AAAAAHHHH!!!! THE FIRST AMENDMENT!!!! FREEDUMB OF SPEECH!!!!" A U.S. president manipulating the rules to put a retired officer on trial and destroy him for actual protected speech? "Weeeelllll, maybe he shunt a' said that."

Trump also purportedly contemplated adding McRaven to the court-martial plan. McRaven was an outspoken critic of Trump during his administration, writing in an October 2019 op-ed in the New York Times that the U.S. was “under attack” by Trump.

“The president told Milley and me that he ‘want[ed] to call them [McChrystal and McRaven] back to active duty and court-martial them’ for what they said,” the book reads.

Esper wrote that he and Milley tried to dissuade Trump from going through with the plan, telling him that the plan would backfire.

But, per Esper, Trump only relented after Milley “promis[ed] that he would personally call the officers and ask them to dial it back.”

McChrystal, reached by email, told TPM that “there was no call I remember — and I would have remembered that.”

Dumpster would have ordered the exhumation of John's McCain's body for corpse desecration if it wouldn't have enraged too much of the Senate and military.  There is NO BOTTOM to his depravity, just like his mentor Vladimir.

If there becomes a Dumpster 47, Milley will be ordered for execution for his failure to tongue lash McChrystal and these other traitors.  

[andydp]

Here's one festering pustule that got lanced.

Cheers as Trump DC hotel sign taken down: 'Good riddance to a sinkhole of corruption'

News that Donald Trump's DC Hotel had come to an end was greeted with applause from ethics experts on Wednesday.

"The Trump International Hotel in Washington is now officially out of business after the Trump family on Wednesday completed its sale to a Miami investor group, which plans to reopen it as a Waldorf Astoria," Eric Lipton of The New York Times reported Wednesday. "The sale formally ended the Trump family’s business presence in Washington, although the family company still owns a golf course in Northern Virginia."

The hotel is in the Old Post Office, a lease which was awarded to the Trump Organization by the federal government.

"Hotel industry executives have said the hotel underperformed compared with other luxury hotels in the city, particularly since President Donald J. Trump left office, in part because some companies and travelers were reluctant to book rooms or hold events at the hotel given the controversies surrounding Mr. Trump," the newspaper reported. "Those factors most likely contributed to the decision to sell the lease, they said."

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cheers-as-trump-dc-hotel-sign-taken-down-good-riddance-to-a-sinkhole-of-corruption/ar-AAXaqqW?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=8dbb9e4bd88342caa219f2cef2752103

[goldenvalley]

May 12, 2022 12:52:25 GMT andydp said:

Here's one festering pustule that got lanced.


"Hotel industry executives have said the hotel underperformed compared with other luxury hotels in the city, particularly since President Donald J. Trump left office, in part because some companies and travelers were reluctant to book rooms or hold events at the hotel given the controversies surrounding Mr. Trump," the newspaper reported. "Those factors most likely contributed to the decision to sell the lease, they said."

Or maybe the only reason people booked events and rooms there was to flatter or honor the man while he was in office.  How many foreign delegations booked there?  How many Republican Party functions were held there?  If the business plan was based on Trump being in office, it was a pretty poor plan overall.

[LFC]

Chris Christie clearly sees that all his humiliating, debasing, downright unmanly groveling and Trumpsucking didn't and will never pay off. That allows him the freedom to snipe back.

Chris Christie Gets Spicy With Trump

After a livid Trump accused Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) and ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) of being “RINOs” for supporting Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), Christie posted a snide tweet jabbing at the “insightful commentary” from “a former President who lost to Joe Biden” about three governors who served more than one term in office.

• “Maybe the ‘R’ in RINO really stands for re-elected,” Christie wrote.

• The ex-New Jersey governor might still have some hard feelings about Trump infecting him with COVID-19 in 2020, which landed Christie in a hospital intensive care unit.

He should have said he'd be awaiting Trump's reply on Twitter. DOH!

[LFC]

From the No Shit Department.

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has found that Trump administration officials unlawfully retaliated against former Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, the twin brother of Alexander Vindman, who served as a key witness in former President Trump’s first impeachment trial.

In a report released Wednesday, the Pentagon watchdog found that it is “more likely than not” that then-Lt. Col. Vindman “was the subject of unfavorable personnel actions from administration officials” as a result of his whistleblowing on Trump’s attempts to withhold military aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigations aimed at digging up dirt on Joe Biden.

Officials “reprised against him because he made protected communications and because of his association with his twin brother’s protected communications to Members of Congress,” the report reads.

The report, however, does not make any recommendations for punishment against Trump administration officials who have since left the White House.

Alexander Vindman and his wife Rachel Vindman appeared dissatisfied over the watchdog’s lack of recommendations for the Trump administration officials involved.

[goldenvalley]

Somewhere in TRS was a cite to a report about Jared Kushner's company getting a $2B investment in his investment.  Looks like there is "business" going to Kushner and Treasury Sec'y Mnuchin as a result of the Trump Admin's interest in Abraham Agreements in the Middle East.  Hint: it wasn't about diplomacy and peace.

Shortly before the 2020 election, Trump administration officials unveiled a U.S. government-sponsored program called the Abraham Fund that they said would raise $3 billion for projects around the Middle East.

Spearheaded by President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, the fund promised to capitalize on diplomatic agreements he had championed between Israel and some Arab states — pacts known as the Abraham Accords. Steven Mnuchin, then Treasury secretary, helped inaugurate the fund on a trip to the United Arab Emirates and Israel, hailing the accords as “a tremendous foundation for economic growth.”

It was little more than talk: With no accounts, employees, income or projects, the fund vanished when Mr. Trump left office. Yet after Mr. Kushner and Mr. Mnuchin crisscrossed the Middle East in the final months of the administration on trips that included trying to raise money for the project, each quickly launched a private fund that in some ways picked up where the Abraham Fund had ended.

And look who worked for them:

Both Mr. Kushner and Mr. Mnuchin hired several aides who were deeply involved in the accords: A top executive at Affinity, retired Maj. Gen. Miguel Correa, is a former military attaché in the Emirates who later worked in the White House. Top executives at Mr. Mnuchin’s fund, Liberty Strategic Capital, include a former ambassador to Israel and a former Treasury aide who helped arrange meetings with Gulf leaders.

The transition from government work for one Liberty Strategic executive was so fast that his jobs appeared to overlap. A roster of 11 top executives and advisers provided to the Saudis by April 2021 included the managing director Michael D’Ambrosio, even though he was still an assistant director at the Secret Service through the end of May. (A Secret Service spokesman said that Mr. D’Ambrosio had disclosed his new employment to the agency and spent his last weeks there on paid leave.)

Nothing new about some interchange of people between government and business but it seems a little suspect that the Trump signature Middle East policy, the Abraham Accords, yields 2 Admin officials some pretty substantial money.

[goldenvalley]

In the category of "it doesn't really matter but is fun for snark". Kellyanne Conway has a book out of course.  She claims she told Trump that the election was lost.  Trump disagrees.  I wonder if she's going to the Florida place for the Memorial Day weekend.

Former President Donald Trump is denying a key anecdote in a former aide’s new book, saying he would have banished Kellyanne Conway from his inner circle if she had ever told him he lost the 2020 presidential election.

In a Thursday morning post on his social media network, Truth Social, Trump refuted Conway’s assertion that she “may have been the first person Donald Trump trusted in his inner circle who told him that he had come up short this time.”

“Kellyanne Conway never told me that she thought we lost the election. If she had, I wouldn’t have dealt with her any longer — she would have been wrong — could go back to her crazy husband,” Trump wrote. “Writing books can make people say some very strange things. I wonder why?”

[LFC]

May 26, 2022 16:12:06 GMT goldenvalley said:

In the category of "it doesn't really matter but is fun for snark". Kellyanne Conway has a book out of course.  She claims she told Trump that the election was lost.  Trump disagrees.  I wonder if she's going to the Florida place for the Memorial Day weekend.

Another Trumpy on a rehab tour. I suspect the book will contain some version of the trope that she stayed with him to try to make sure he didn't act on his worst impulses.  They lied then and they're lying now. It's pretty pathetic that it took her teenage daughter's open-eyed assessment of what she was doing to get it through her thick, corrupt, lying skull that she was a political whore willing to say or do anything for money. Who knows, she still may not realize it.

[goldenvalley]

The first trial coming out of the Durham investigation launched by William Barr received a not guilty verdict.  

The trial focused on whether Sussmann, a cybersecurity attorney and former federal prosecutor, concealed from the FBI that he was representing Clinton’s campaign when he presented computer data that he said showed a possible secret backchannel between Russia-based Alfa Bank and Trump’s business company, the Trump Organization. The FBI investigated but quickly determined that there was no suspicious contact.

The bureau’s then-general counsel and the government’s star witness, James Baker, testified that he was “100% confident” that Sussmann had told him that he was not representing any client during the meeting. Prosecutors say he was actually acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign and another client, and that he hid that information so as to make it seem more credible and to boost the chances of getting the FBI to investigate.

Lawyers for Sussmann deny that he lied, saying that it was impossible to know with certainty what he told Baker since they were the only participants in the meeting and neither of them took notes.

They argued that if Sussmann said he wasn’t acting on the Clinton campaign’s behalf that that was technically accurate since he didn’t ask the FBI to take any particular action. And they said that even if he did make a false statement, it was ultimately irrelevant since the FBI was already investigating Russia and the Trump campaign and would have looked into the Alfa Bank data no matter the source.

During the two-week trial, jurors heard from current and former FBI officials who described efforts to assess the data’s legitimacy as well as former Clinton campaign aides.

[LFC]

Brian Kemp blocked being primaried by Trump's guy and immediately went back to licking his crevice. Even Republicans who aren't 100% insane are still without a shred of pride as they prostate (not sic) themselves before Dear Leader.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) campaign is reportedly looking to smooth things over with former President Trump ahead of the gubernatorial election in November, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Tuesday. Kemp easily triumphed last week over primary challenger and Trump endorsee David Perdue.

A diplomatic mission spearheaded by Kemp’s allies is reportedly in the works in the hope that the former president won’t cause a fuss heading into Kemp’s challenge against Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams in November, the newspaper reported on Tuesday. Kemp’s team is reportedly expecting Trump to return to the battleground state to stump for his endorsees Hershel Walker and Burt Jones, who won GOP primaries for the Senate and lieutenant governor, respectively.

It seems, however, that the former president might not yet be ready to mend fences. In a statement issued Tuesday morning through his Save America PAC, Trump blasted out a link to an article that baselessly speculated about whether voter fraud handed Kemp a 50-point victory in the Georgia GOP primary.

[LFC]

After not doing so well so far in his desperate need for validation (his hand-picked clowns lost a lot of primaries so far) he's now all in on attacking Liz Cheney.

Former President Donald Trump, flanked by a coterie of hard-core MAGA lawmakers, appeared in Wyoming this weekend to campaign for Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) Republican challenger.

“Liz Cheney is about America last,” he told the crowd, after chuckling about a photo that mashed up Cheney and former President George W. Bush.

Trump, stung by the recent high-profile losses of some of his endorsed candidates, chided the media for not covering his winning record in primary picks. He’s still carrying anger about the losses of David Perdue and Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) in Georgia, per the Washington Post, considering both races embarrassing and Perdue in particular a lazy candidate.

Trump has thrown his support behind Cheney challenger Harriet Hageman, an attorney and former member of the Republican National Committee.

[LFC]

The Trumpies' book sales aren't exactly setting records, at least not good ones.

Trumpworld tell-alls that promised bombshell accounts of life in the twice-impeached former president’s White House have been a flop with readers, a Politico report shows. Former chief of staff Mark Meadow’s book has only sold 21,569 books, according to research firm NPD Bookscan. The same can be said for COVID-19 response coordinator Deborah Birx, who sold fewer than 6,000 copies. Books from Kellyanne Conway, Stephanie Grisham, Ben Carson, and Mark Espers all failed to net more than 42,500 copies sold. “Since he left office, the Trump memoirs have not done great,” a top publishing executive told Politico. “Each of the people who have written a book so far was telling stories that we pretty much already knew.” Some have had much more success than others, though, with former FBI director James Comey’s book selling 626,810 copies and former national security adviser John Bolton’s book with 680,949.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 23, 2022 17:44:35 GMT LFC said:

The Trumpies' book sales aren't exactly setting records, at least not good ones.

Trumpworld tell-alls that promised bombshell accounts of life in the twice-impeached former president’s White House have been a flop with readers, a Politico report shows. Former chief of staff Mark Meadow’s book has only sold 21,569 books, according to research firm NPD Bookscan. The same can be said for COVID-19 response coordinator Deborah Birx, who sold fewer than 6,000 copies. Books from Kellyanne Conway, Stephanie Grisham, Ben Carson, and Mark Espers all failed to net more than 42,500 copies sold. “Since he left office, the Trump memoirs have not done great,” a top publishing executive told Politico. “Each of the people who have written a book so far was telling stories that we pretty much already knew.” Some have had much more success than others, though, with former FBI director James Comey’s book selling 626,810 copies and former national security adviser John Bolton’s book with 680,949.

Comey, there's the guy who has a lot to answer for.  His memo about emails right before the election set up Trump's victory...the final blow in 2016. The oops never mind statement did not make up for that.

[LFC]

Jun 24, 2022 3:30:32 GMT goldenvalley said:

Comey, there's the guy who has a lot to answer for.  His memo about emails right before the election set up Trump's victory...the final blow in 2016. The oops never mind statement did not make up for that.

He solidified his place in history with one monumentally poor decision. He was so focused on appearing to be non-partisan that he went completely partisan.

[andydp]

An appropriate quote for this thread:

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.

Dante Alighieri

[LFC]

I'd say to them that if you weren't prepared to uphold your oath to protect the Constitution you should never have taken the job.

[AnBr]

Jun 24, 2022 13:44:53 GMT LFC said:

He was so focused on appearing to be non-partisan that he went completely partisan.

Like the so called main stream media.