Trump: I Am The State, I Am The Boss

[Stuart G]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-i-am-the-state-i-am-the-boss

Josh Marshall, from Talking Points Memo:

Look at these last three paragraphs:

However that may be as a technical matter, I think it’s largely a moot question and likely not even legally relevant. What President Trump is doing here is openly threatening a private citizen against exercising the right to free speech that is his right as a citizen. We have seen for months that the President believes that the rather narrow obligations of confidentiality federal employees are bound by are somehow comparable to the kind of absolute confidences and loyalty he demanded and often got from employees as the head of a private company. But of course they are not.

One of the weirder things about Trump’s account of his dinner in which Comey was asking to ‘stay on’ is Trump’s tone and vocabulary in describing the encounter. The description has the feel of how the new owner’s of a company might meet with a company executive who was looking to keep his job. That is no doubt how Trump saw it. This conflation of the US government with a new company Trump has acquired runs like a golden seam through virtually everything that has happened in the last 100+ days.

The President is now publicly blackmailing Comey with “tapes” that are almost certainly fictitious. On the off chance they do exist and confirm Trump’s version of events rather than Comey’s they would probably land Trump in even more trouble since they would be taped evidence of the President seeking assurances of safety from an investigation and one of nation’s top law enforcement officers offering such assurances. That would be very bad for Comey but even worse for Trump. After all, Comey doesn’t have a job to lose. It’s purely a reputational matter for him now. As is so often the case, the President’s transgressions are hopelessly bound up with his nonsense and ridiculousness. We are all along for the ride.

[0rganism]

1. Leviathan rising

the Monarch is the state
His health is our health
His wealth is our wealth
His splendor is our splendor
His greatness is our greatness

"So bring me the blood and red wine for the one to succeed me
For he is a man and a God - and He will die too"