Truly, I’m not even trying to keep up with “reporting” all the breaking news of the impeachment. Everything has been moving so fast this week, it’s kind of amazing. I’ve been in a good mood for days. Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified yesterday before a House committee, and Devin Nunes showed his ass once again, but more than that, we actually learned some interesting information: White House officials knew how bad the Trump-Zelensky call was and immediately after the call, the White House transferred all transcripts into their special locked-down computer system like the call was a national security issue, or that classified material had been discussed. This is important for many reasons: Maguire refused to confirm if the White House had done this with other Trump calls to foreign leaders (say, Putin), and because you’re not supposed to store records of these calls if the information is political/damaging rather than classified.
As everything is coming to a boil quickly, the mood in the White House is being described as “total panic,” with rising “anxiety, unease, and concern” that this is the thing which will actually bring down Trump. One source told NBC News: “There’s not a lot of confidence that there’s no there there… This doesn’t look like something that’s going to be overtaken by the next news cycle.” Another source said the concern among West Wing staffers is that Trump “could respond erratically and become ‘unmanageable.’” Which is actually funny, because who knew that before now, Trump was being manageable? Speaking of, Trump made some… remarks about the whistleblower at a private function at the United Nations. The event was supposed to be a no-press event for the families of the US delegation to the UN. This is what Trump told them in his remarks:
… For instance, today I just heard while I’m coming up here, you know they have a whistleblower (laughter); he turned out to be a fake, he’s a fake, a highly partisan whistleblower. The lawyer contributed to Biden, they contributed to — the whole thing is — but more importantly, you know what the whistleblower [complaint] is? The same letter that we announced yesterday, which was perfect; I couldn’t have written it better if I wrote it myself. I could not have said or had a better conversation.
And we had a really nice gentleman in the president of Ukraine yesterday. And he was — he was good. They said, ‘Was he pressuring you?’ You know, these animals in the press. They’re animals. Some of the worst human beings you’ll ever meet. (An audience member yells: “Fake news!”) They’re scum, many of them are scum… Then it turns out they had senators, Democrat senators, who went over there and strong-armed the guy: “You better damn well do this, or you’re not going to get any money from Congress.” Oh, I see, that’s okay? And then you have Sleepy Joe Biden, who’s dumb as a rock.
This guy was dumb on his best day, and he’s not having his best day right now. He’s dumb as a rock. So you have Sleepy Joe, and he goes up, and his kid, who’s got a lot of problems, he got thrown out of the Navy for problems. I mean, look, I’m not going to — it’s a problem, that’s a problem, so we won’t get into why and all that. But he got thrown out of the Navy, and now this kid goes into Ukraine, walks away with millions of dollars, and he becomes a consultant for $50,000 a month. And he doesn’t know anything compared to anybody in this room. Okay? He’s a stiff; he knows nothing. He’s walking away with $50,000, or as you would say in the old days, 50K a month. Not bad. Would anybody else in this room like to represent Ukraine for $50,000?
…And then they talk about me, and I didn’t do anything. I don’t know if I’m the most innocent person in the world. But, you know, you look at that — most presidential, I’m the most presidential, except for possibly Abe Lincoln when he wore the hat — that was tough to beat.
So the whistleblower came out and said nothing. Said: ‘A couple of people told me he had a conversation with Ukraine.’ We’re at war. These people are sick. They’re sick. And nobody’s called it out like I do. I don’t understand. People are afraid to call it out. They’re afraid to say that the press is crooked. We have a crooked press. We have a dishonest media. So now they’re devastated, but they’ll always find something. I’m sure there’ll be something they’ll find in this report that will suit their lie. But basically that person never saw the report, never saw the call. Never saw the call. Heard something, and decided that he or she or whoever the hell it is — sort of like, almost, a spy. I want to know who’s the person that gave the whistleblower, who’s the person that gave the whistleblower the information, because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? With spies and treason, right?”
(He then said, “We used to handle them a little differently than we do now,” according to a recording of the remarks obtained by the Los Angeles Times.)
So after he treated a UN event for families of the American delegation like a campaign rally – he even bragged about crowd sizes and how his supporters encouraged him to “keep tweeting” – he also decided to threaten to kill the whistleblower. I… don’t have words.
The NY Times has words though – they decided the person who really needs to be investigated at this point is… the whistleblower. The NYT did an article where they tried to suss out who the whistleblower is, and they come close to outing him. I don’t even understand what’s happening over there.
NYT reports: The whistleblower is a C.I.A. officer who was detailed to work at the White House at one point, according to three people familiar. "His complaint suggested he was an analyst by training with an understanding of Ukrainian politics." https://t.co/m808Prn1ic
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 26, 2019
NYT: Trump is threatening to put people to death over this whistleblower.
Also NYT: Here's the whistleblower's home address and a list of places he likes to eat alone.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) September 26, 2019
The new cover of @TIME. pic.twitter.com/Grk9OzKD84
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 26, 2019
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Then on Monday you had Bill Weld saying this about Trump:
“That’s not just undermining democratic institutions. That is treason. It’s treason, pure and simple,” Weld said. “And the penalty for treason under the US Code is death. That’s the only penalty.”
Well we know Bigly likes to project.
YEE, ma’am. This entire rant is a masterwork of projection and other ways of a NPD trying to stroke himself.
I’m never voting for a Republican, ever, but I agree with Weld. If the people responsible for the treason and its coverup – from Trump to his weak chinned progeny to Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller to all the rest – aren’t tried and punished to the fullest extent of the law, including the death penalty for some of them, this will just happen again.
Sooooo … what happens when the Cheeto Mussolini gets found guilty of treason?
Lemme guess. The penalty is going to change.
Well, Bill Weld is a republican candidate. He made that quote specifically ABOUT Trump. So I doubt the goal posts will move for him. But I bet it will for all the Trumpers.
I just thought it was interesting to bring that in while Trump is going on about how spies need to be taken care of the old way. He should really watch what he’s wishing for, because he’s in a similar boat as King of Projection.
@Erinn, excellent point! And lolz the ‘King of Projection’!
I’ve been away for work for about a week and haven’t had time to watch any news or read papers. I am finally logging in and I am so confused! I feel like I woke up in the twilight zone. I don’t even understand what I’d going on!
I know, me too, pretty much! I’ve been in the Bahamas and I come back to this. I’ve been trying to parse all the information over the last day and 1/2. I heard about it, but didn’t have a lot of information. Good Lord, arrest the orange menace already. I don’t care if his skin tone will clash with an orange jumpsuit.
NYT trying to expose the whistleblower is facepalm inducing. That’s not how this works, NYT.
The NYT has been making questionable choices for a while now. Old rich white men (and the complicit women who support them) are circling the wagons in every sphere.
The NYT is taking its order from Rupert Murdoch (aka bigly’s biggest fan).
Especially considering they are so protective of their sources in the white house etc. Revealing that much about the whistle blower was a really appalling choice on their part.
I found that really alarming too. They wrote an op-ed trying to explain they felt a need to defend the credibility of the whistle blower, and instead, I think just helped T/GOP redirect the narrative, and narrow the search for the WB. Scary, reckless and wrong… Most of the commenters are similarly outraged.
It’s terrible, I totally do not understand this choice. That’s not journalism.
NYT has discredited themselves with that article, there are statutes to protect whistleblowers. I wonder if people remember how to read laws, penal codes, etc. (IANAL)
That is highly irresponsible. Those kind of details, if true, would make it incredibly easy to figure out who it was, which would make that person a target for retaliation. Shame on the NYT.
I’m wondering if a lawsuit can be brought against the NYT for exposing the identity of the WB since they are protected by law. And you know that the many of the loyal Trumpers out there would surely try and/or succeed in harming/killing the WB.
I just have been giddy since this entire WB complaint has come to light. We are talking about actual recordings and documentation that could very well be the nail in Drumpfs impeachment. I am also thrilled how aggressive the House intelligence committee is on getting all of the necessary documentation and lining up the witnesses for the next few weeks. This is something that we could really sink our teeth Into for actual impeachment ☺️
This is so hard to keep track of across the pond! Everything’s happening so quickly and there are so many strands to try and keep hold of!
I’m still, even now, always surprised at how unbelievably moronic Trump is when his words are reported verbatim.
This has gone from slow-paced but complex to fast and easy. This core story (holding up needed aid while trying to gain dirt on an opponent from said country) is simple. And very wrong.
The additional details (suggesting large-scale coverup with many potential witnesses/complicit parties) are just extra strands.
I’ve never read such a large passage of his words and my jaw literally (used correctly here!) fell open. I’ve never ever read such alarming gobbledygook in my life. Abe Lincoln and his hat!! Abe Lincoln and his hat! I mean, c’mon, what the hell?
I read an article from an Australian reporter the other day, and he said that he was reporting on a Trump press event at the UN, and he could NOT believe how nonsensical Trump is when unedited. It made him realize how hard the press has been working to parse his words and reorganize them to give them meaning. He noted that you’ll typically see fragments “in quotes”, because if they printed the whole quote it wouldn’t make sense.
Terrifying.
“In most circumstances, presenting information in as intelligible a form as possible is what we are trained for. But the shock I felt hearing half an hour of unfiltered meanderings from the president of the United States made me wonder whether the editing does our readers a disservice.”
“I’d understood the dilemma of normalising Trump’s ideas and policies – the racism, misogyny and demonisation of the free press. But watching just one press conference from Otay Mesa helped me understand how the process of reporting about this president can mask and normalise his full and alarming incoherence.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/20/as-a-foreign-reporter-visiting-the-us-i-was-stunned-by-trumps-press-conference
The Australian reporter is a she, as per photo and name
My apologies! I read the article yesterday and didn’t see the photo then. I think their comments are important regardless of gender.
But….his server.
I’ll see myself out.
“LOCK HIM/THEM UP!!! LOCK HIM/THEM UP!!!”
(I’ll join you in the other room. It’s early, so I’ll bring coffee; lots of wine for later! 😊)
Tiffany – LOLOL!! And (TheOG)@Jan90067, I will bring some popcorn too!
Yass! Lets. Have The. BIGGEST. Impeachment. Party. Of. The Century!!!!
For some reason I continue to be astounded that the person who is the president of this country converses like an angry ten year old and worse, that people applaud this like it is a good thing.
That and as ever, that every single fucking thing, no matter how small, is ALWAYS “I’m the best at X, and basically the best in the whole history of X”.
Ugh, I know! Reading that was making my head hurt. The man is incapable of forming a coherent thought or sentence. The bit about him being the “most presidential”, except for Lincoln with his hat of course? I just can’t. And what he said about how to handle the whistleblower…🤯. HE. NEEDS. TO. GO. And by “GO” I mean to prison, for the rest of his sorry life.
There’s a Buzzfeed article where they’ve put Trump quotes from the last week or so on top of photos of Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development. I sent one of them to my husband with no context and he was just like “oh is that back on the air?” because it made most sense for it to be an actual quote from Lucille rather than a quote from a president.
I read an article written by a former educator a few days ago. She posited trump is dyslexic, which explains his elementary school reading level. Because he’s old as dirt, he didn’t get it diagnosed and treated. He probably was teased as a kid in elementary school, and that caused him to 1. turn into a bully, and 2. create an alternate reality of his supposed grandeur and intellectual capabilities.
This was a light bulb moment for me. It all makes perfect sense.
The word for today is “liddle’.” That’s L…I…D…D…L…E…HYPHEN, according to our president. Don’t forget the hyphen, which looks like this ‘. Also, “discribed.” Yes, the Twitter meltdown continues.
Now use it in a sentence: his penis must be very liddle.
His penis is so liddle it makes his hands look bigly.
Joanna…brilliant!!! 😂🤣
I laughed so hard I covfefed😳
It is not surprising he doesn’t know the difference between a hyphen and an apostrophe.
What is surprising is he refrained from calling Schiff “Shitt.”
He did use “Schitt” once but he’s sticking to “Schiff” last night and this morning. It might evolve.
LP- yeah, I remember him using “Shitt” before and not correcting which….is like a 12 year old taunting someone on the playground.
That liddle’ tweet has got to be the most incoherent one yet. What is he even saying? And how can anyone, ANYONE, pretend this is even remotely normal for a grown adult, let alone POTUS?
It’s troubling that he thinks liddle’ means something that liddle does not.
Yes, Trump wants his enemies shut up, even if that means having them killed. Look at the shady 1989 helicopter crash which killed the top three executives running his casinos… Things that make you go hmmm:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-11-fi-229-story.html
Probably more important than ordering hits, though, is that Trump knows threats will scare other whistleblowers from coming forward.
I tried to read his ‘remarks’ here and I had to restart the paragraph about 4 times because I could feel my brain curdling.
I then remembered that these were the words of president trump- they don’t make any sense in any language. I’d be able to make more sense reading a bowl of alphabetti spaghetti.
Do not feel bad as I had the exact same problem reading Trump’s words.
I read his words in his voice and it automatically makes me stabby.
Aidevee – SAME!! I was trying so hard to understand the word salad, I had to read it numerous time. It was verrrrry confusing! Then I realized, Cheeto Mussolini is highly triggered at the moment, so making sense is not going to be his strong suit.
His liddle’ brain is working overtime right now, and it’s not pretty!
He makes Sarah Palin sound like a Rhodes scholar.
LOL!! Bingo!
This kind of crap is why I can’t watch or listen to him actually speak. This idiot can’t compose a sentence. If he was in 3rd grade, he’d have red marks all over his paper.
I was watching the news while at the gym yesterday. These were the headlines:
CNN: Whistleblower- Trump abused power by attempting to force Ukraine to interfere in 2020 election, White House attempted to cover it up.
FOX: BIDEN FACES NEW SCRUTINY OVER UKRAINE SCANDAL!
Unreal. Also, I’m now hearing MAGATs say the left is being hypocritical because Obama did the same stuff Trump is doing but no one ever made a big deal about it.
I confess that I flip over to Fox at night, just to see the difference in coverage. Last night I lingered to watch Rudy Colludy continue his confession tour. The host was having to interrupt him for a commercial break, to keep him from completely inducting himself.
Last night, he was again claiming to be the personal lawyer AND asked by the State Dept to get involved. He and his “client” have no idea how deep the hole is, but they keep digging deeper.
And despite the “deep hole” they keep digging themselves into, I’m not convinced Trump or anyone else inside his circle will experience consequences. Nixon didn’t and while this is so, so much worse than Watergate I can see Trump somehow working out a deal that will include no jail time. I have little to no faith in our government when it comes to these things.
This is WATERGATE all over again–just like his 2nd favorite POTUS (and Andrew Jackson, Take-A-Dump’s 1st favorite was impeached as well). Stupid-Is-As-Stupid-Does!
That’s funny, I have the same thought. Every. Single. Day. But not about the whistleblower. About the real treasonous rats.
I hope he chokes to death on his word salad of lies if that’s the only way to end this nightmare.
Thank you!
Hambuggers. . . . . (FRIEK can’t express himself correctly for any damn thing!)
This gif just about covers it for me.
https://twitter.com/strandjunker/status/1177539316169490433?s=21
Jerusha- you always have the best Twitter links!
His speech is astounding in its incoherence—even after nearly three years of listening to him babble. I am also gobsmacked that he persists in yammering about crowd sizes! Because to him, that equals ~ratings~! Oh, about crowd sizes: he forgets to mention that his Unfrozen Caveman Son gave a speech recently at which there was an attendance of three. (Thank you and bless you, Phil Hartmann)
But that’s all right, because I think this really is the end of 😠 him. If I get any giddier, I’ll be skipping down the street.
Note, once again, the anti-press language. They are “animals” and “scum.” This lunatic is gonna get someone killed.
His rhetoric has already gotten people killed in my opinion….see El Paso for one example…
What is going on with the NYT? I don’t understand. Back in 2016 Trump would discredit them by calling them “the failing NYT” all the time. I’m not super familiar with the media in the USA but I guess they used to be somewhat critical of Trump back then. What happened that made them to turn out like this?
The Murdocks
I prefer to get national news from the Washington Post than the New York Times…the Times reporters soft pedal and normalize DJT to maintain their access. One of the prime players, Maggie Haberman, is the one who did the soft-focus glamour profile on Hope Hicks a few months back. Maggie’s mother is the VP at a NYC PR firm where a major client and friend of the boss is Jared Kushner. Maggie also has a penchant for making coy little riddle statements on Twitter that push her “I know something you don’t know!” brand.
Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and the other Washington Post reporters >> the NY Times reporters
IT’s called “working the refees”. You accuse the media of being biased liberals, instead of the press standing up for their integrity and truthfulness, they try to kiss up to the conservatives by either unfairly attacking liberals and Independents or writing glowing articles about conservatives. It then become “both sides-ism”. The Republicans played this trick especially well during the Obama era.
Wow. I don’t recognize the world any more.
Tell me again how he isn’t a dictator. Go on.
Trump is a traitor so I think the same thing should happen to him what happens to all traitors.
So sorry that we are in this situation, but we are. That said, wow what a week! HIghlight for me was watching his unelected, prissy, cold hearted family at the UN, without a clue what was going on sitting at the UN while formal impeachment was beginning… HA! Have a good weekend everyone and hang in there. Pace yourselves everybody, we have a ways to go but we can do this. And even if we fail, we can say that we tried. Hang in there. Thanks Kaiser and CB for coverage, this is important now and thanks to all here too. (Not sure what is happening but something is going on with Barr, his family and NY too. Stay tuned.)
“I don’t know if I’m the most innocent person in the world.”
He’s such an idiot.
The thing about Trump’s declining coherence is that he was very well spoken back in the 80s and 90s. I think what we’re seeing is him cracking under the constant scrutiny as well as the fact he’s forced to do some work as president. The stress along with his age may be causing it. Or, the onset of dementia.
He seriously just threatened to kill an intelligence agent. Like in a budget Dollar Store Tom Clancy wannabe novel. I hope every other intelligence officer and intelligent officers are ready to protect people who come forward on this. I hope this attempt to literally terrorize the people protecting the country from terrorist finally makes a few people in the GOP brave. There are signs but I have learned not to underestimate the teach of pure cowardice.
I’m sure career intelligence officers have plenty of evidence on all the traitors. I hope they defy the upper level trump appointees and all come forward and spill the dirt. They have taken an oath to protect this country and taking out trump should be their first order of business.
I hope Americans are realizing their democracy is at serious risk right now. The norms of democracy are now constantly under attack by Trump and institutions and norms are only as strong as those who defend them, and fewer and fewer people will if the pres is allowed to get away with threatening (and potentially harming) a public servant. Ya’ll are in serious serious trouble.
Of course he does.
Omg. My head. Reading his quotes is like having my head in a blender. Until my dying day, I will be making fun of his voters. I will never let it go. As internet god as my witness, I will shame MAGA supporters as the limp puny sweaty little monsters they are. My family will beg visitors to lay off politics because crazy mom has a meat cleaver for right-wing shit stain cleaners.
I’m so scared!
The GOP is minimizing this and blaming the whistleblower too. WTAF?
I see the knives coming out. It’s a matter of time of who’ll be the first to swing their knife at the “president.”
“But, you know, you look at that — most presidential, I’m the most presidential, except for possibly Abe Lincoln when he wore the hat — that was tough to beat.“
Yes, a hat made Abe presidential. Trump is so incoherent, not to mention living in another dimension where he is some kind of innocent martyr.
Though English is not my mother tongue, I am an English teacher and I’ve done the Cambridge proficiency exams with an A, which means I’m pretty good at it, or so I thought!! I can’t understand a word of what I’ve just read… Really, I remember studying Shakespeare (Hamlet, Much Ado about Nothing, The tempest) and also the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.. Those were easy to understand, by comparison… (feeling frustrated… sigh…)