Amaryllis
Amaryllis's JournalTrump & Co. Put Out a Call for Plumbers (for leaks)- Moyers
Trump & Co. Put Out a Call for Plumbers
With so many leaks in the White House and no one to stop them, the Trump administration and the right-wing media are stepping up attacks on the "fake news" mainstream media and whistleblowers.
By Todd Gitlin | May 22, 2017
snip
As the firestorm over FBI Director James Comey’s firing reached blast-furnace temperatures, enter poor Sean Spicer to reinforce the theme that the “enemy of the people” has been missing the real story: “that our national security has been undermined by the leaking of private and highly classified conversations.” At the same time, according to The New York Times, Fox News hosts were airing “stories about the Clintons’ charitable foundation — the Fox News equivalent of a greatest hits reel.”
A topic of heated dinner-party discussions these days is whether Trump’s eruptions are (1) uncontrollable outbursts, (2) arousal calls to his base or (3) a strategic attempt to cow his enemies. This is a close question. In varying measures, all three might be true, though I lean to (1) and (2). Intention doesn’t matter much. (It’s not clear that Trump is capable of holding on to what in other people might be called “intentions” for more than 30 seconds.) The fury of the obsession is what counts. You don’t have to go full Freudian to understand that the fixation is a clue to the mentality of the fixer — his fears and his animus.
In the bunkers of paranoid regimes, it’s a rule of thumb that the enemy always lurks. Paired with that one is a second: that the enemy would be lost without a fifth column. This term has become a staple of the right. In a superficially architectural reference, Trump knowingly alluded to it in his remarks to the CIA in Langley on Jan. 23, saying: “We won’t have columns. You understand that? We get rid of the columns.”
Columns, columns everywhere. No wonder Trump and his drum-beaters are agitated. Indeed, Trump and his Vortex loyalists have tracked the fifth column to the interior of the swamp: “the low-life leakers.”
Lots of snip
Meanwhile, Trump’s hard-core supporters are said to be hanging tough, tuning out Comey’s firing. For them, cognitive dissonance meets feel-good, and they have more urgent concerns. What, them worry? This from the AP:
“I tuned it [the Comey matter] out,” said 44-year-old Michele Velardi, a mother of three sons, during a break from her job at a Staten Island hair salon. “I didn’t want to be depressed. I don’t want to feel that he’s not doing what he said, so I just choose to not listen.”
But Trump’s handlers need, from a critical mass of their followers, more than a tune-out. They need a rally. Toward that end, they need an alt-narrative, a story of their own to make sense of the unpleasantness that gathers around them. The explanation of first resort is that the “very, very dishonest press,” and its fifth column allies, are pumping them full of toxic untruth.
Much more snip
http://billmoyers.com/story/trump-co-put-out-call-plumbers/
Michael Flynn expected to invoke Fifth Amendment, decline senate subpeona (CNN)
Video at link; won't let me copy URL. If anyone else can, please post in reply.
Updated 11:31 AM ET, Mon May 22, 2017
(CNN)President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn won't provide records to the Senate intelligence committee and will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights in response to a subpoena from the committee, according to a source close to Flynn.
Flynn's refusal to cooperate comes as he faces scrutiny in several inquiries, including on Capitol Hill and a federal grand jury that has issued subpoenas to associates of the ex-national security adviser.
Flynn's refusal to cooperate will also intensify scrutiny over Trump's decision to hire him initially for the job and his decision to keep him on staff for 18 days after the President was warned by former acting Attorney General Sally Yates that Flynn may have been compromised by the Russians.
The Senate committee had asked Flynn earlier this month to produce all records over his communications with Russian officials by this Wednesday. But Flynn is expected to send a letter later Monday invoking his Fifth Amendment rights.
The source close to Flynn said it would be "highly imprudent for him not to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights" given that several members of Congress have called for his prosecution.
The Associated Press first reported Flynn's plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Flynn's decision to decline the subpoena does not come as a surprise to Senate intelligence leaders, as Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, also told the panel last month he would not provide documents in response to an April request.
snip
During the 2016 campaign, Trump blasted aides to Hillary Clinton for taking the Fifth Amendment in relation to the investigation of her use of a private email server while secretary of state. He said at a September Iowa rally: "So there are five people taking the Fifth Amendment, like you see on the mob, right? You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?"
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/22/politics/michael-flynn-pleads-fifth/index.html
Must watch Joy and O'Donnell from earlier today: why Rs keep backing Trump; turned on Nixon- why?
Great discussion between Joy and Lawrence about difference between Congress now and during Nixon's time and why Rs continue to back Trump. Other good stuff too. One reason O'Donnell is so good is because of his background in politics. He knows it from the inside.
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/lawrence-o-donnell-and-joy-reid-talk-trump-949657155802
Trevor Noah Interview with Al Jazeera - Brilliant & Perceptive. Not funny.
This Al Jazeera interview is from Feb. I wasn't aware of it before, but it's well worth listening to. Trevor understands much of what is happening now politically in light of his own history growing up under Apartheid.
"Asked about a recent comment he made, in which Noah related current events in the US to what he has already lived through in his life, the comedian expresses concern over worries that a culture of segregation and oppression is brewing.
"If you live in a place where people use economic instability to [place] blame on certain groups of people, those are the first steps to building a society that is isolated, and most importantly, seeks out to oppress," says Noah. "A leader like Trump who has shown - even in the little time that he has been in power - that he will use this to his advantage."
"When people are hungry and afraid, you can get them to believe anything if you point at the right enemy."
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2017/02/trevor-noah-leader-tweeting-policy-ridiculous-170211073941654.html
I was disappointed when he first took over the Daily Show but he brings his own unique perspective from his unusual background and does not disappoint.
Rep. Ted Lieu Hilariously Trolls Trump With Cheat Sheet For First Big Trip Abroad
Congressman Expertly Trolls Donald Trump With Cheat Sheet For First Big Trip Abroad
“Russia = not ally.”
By Lee Moran
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) majestically trolled Donald Trump by tweeting him a cheat sheet for his first big trip abroad as president.
As Trump jetted off for his nine-day jaunt to the Middle East and Western Europe on Friday, Lieu thought it prudent to give the president some advice to ensure he stays out of trouble while overseas.
“DON’T leak classified information,” was his top tip. He also felt compelled to state that Israel is an ally of the U.S., and Russia is not.
https://twitter.com/RepTedLieu/status/865568077240451074/photo/1
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ted-lieu-donald-trump-trip-abroad_us_591ff108e4b034684b0ca2b8?section=us_politics
Nation Favors Travel Ban on Person Who Has Recently Visited Muslim Country (Borowitz)
RIYADH (The Borowitz Report)—In a notable shift of public opinion, a substantial majority of Americans now favor a travel ban on a person who has recently visited a Muslim country, a new poll shows.
According to the poll, if such a person travelled to a country in the Middle East, for example, he should be subjected to extreme vetting before he is allowed to return to the United States.
If, in the course of such vetting, the person is found to have recently engaged in activities to undermine or even destroy American democracy in collaboration with a foreign enemy, he should be barred forever from entering the U.S., poll respondents agreed.
In sizable numbers, those polled “strongly agreed” with the statement, “Any American who travels to a Muslim country with the intention of selling them deadly weapons should not be allowed to return.”
Finally, a broad majority of poll respondents said that if such a person were to remain outside the borders of the U.S. forever, they would “sleep better at night.”
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/nation-favors-travel-ban-on-person-who-has-recently-visited-muslim-country?mbid=nl_052017%20Borowitz%20Newsletter%20(1)&CNDID=49083371&spMailingID=11075109&spUserID=MTgzMjI2MTM1NTc2S0&spJobID=1161758542&spReportId=MTE2MTc1ODU0MgS2
Indications Pence is more deliberative operator than naive chump; widens distance between self & T.
Don’t Shed A Tear For Mike Pence, Folks
He knew what he was signing up for.
By Jason Linkins
snip
There are two possibilities, it seems. Either the performatively pious Pence, after fully assaying Trump’s character, determined that he could be fully on board as one of the reality-television mogul’s enablers, or he was too intellectually dense to understand the obviously fraught situation in which he’d be participating. Dupe or opportunist: Those are your two choices.
snip
Like I said, Pence’s attempts to put some distance between himself and Trump aren’t being made to look particularly obvious. For example, he’s very pointedly letting it be known that he does not hold Trump responsible for not keeping him up to speed on L’Affaire Flynn. And CNN’s Elizabeth Landers follows this week’s earlier news with a report on Friday in which more sources with familiarity of Pence’s thinking paint a different picture ― one in which Pence is a steadfast member of the team, it’s just that all this drama is just wearing him out, man.
After a fast and furious news cycle at the White House this week, the last few days may have worn on Vice President Mike Pence.
Though Pence will continue to be a “loyal soldier” because he is a “relentlessly positive guy, he “looks tired,” a senior administration adviser observed on Thursday, outlining the vice president’s schedule and trying to explain his relative absence from the public eye.
snip
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pence-trump_us_591f4713e4b034684b0c51a1?jha&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Frustration and Outrage Builds Among Democrats After Useless Deputy AG Briefing On Comey Firing
House Democrats came out their briefing from Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein frustrated and convinced that they couldn’t trust anything that the Trump administration says. One Democratic congressman referred to the briefing as “useless.”
snip - lots of tweets and transcripts of Rosenstein's opening remarks
Democrats weren’t impressed because the Deputy AG stuck to the White House line, and didn’t say much of anything that would justify it being classified. The idea that Rosenstein would come to Congress and give them any new information was wishful thinking, but the one thing that the Trump White House can’t grasp is how much it would help them to be honest with Congress. The fact that this administration is avoiding honesty like it is a fatal disease suggests that what happened during the 2016 campaign is bad enough to topple this presidency.
Republicans continue to try to move the goalposts by moving the focus of the investigation on to Russia. The congressional majority would prefer it if we as a nation would focus all of our attention on what Russia did, and ignore what members of the campaign and the administration might have done.
The fact that Democrats came out of the briefing frustrated and angry is a good sign. House Democrats are hungry for the truth, and they are going to continue to question and fight for a real investigation until they get it.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/05/19/frustration-outrage-builds-democrats-useless-deputy-ag-briefing-comey-firing.html
CNNs Tapper: White House leaks appear to be coming from staffers concerned about Trumps fitness
CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday placed the blame for the state of Donald Trump’s administration squarely on the president’s shoulders, noting the historic number of leaks coming from the White House are spurred, in part, by “people that are concerned about this president and his temperament and his fitness.”
“Is it fair to say, do you think, that President Trump is his own worst enemy when it comes to getting this out of the headlines?” Tapper asked Bush-era Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Stephen Hadley. “I mean, he is the one who fired Comey, he’s the one that allegedly made this comment [about] Comey, he’s the one who wasn’t honest … about the reason behind the firing.”
“You could go on an on,” Tapper continued. “All the sudden you have a special counsel. That wouldn’t have happened two weeks ago were it not for President Trump’s actions.”
Tapper later turned to leaks coming from the White House after two bombshell reports were published in rapid-fire succession on Friday afternoon.
“I think some of the leaks are coming from people that are concerned about this president and his temperament and his fitness,” Tapper said.
Watch the video below, via CNN:
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/cnns-tapper-white-house-leaks-appear-to-be-coming-from-staffers-concerned-about-trumps-fitness/
Nunes supposed to be RECUSED and he is reviewing intel on Russia probe!! Dems pissed.
Appearing on CNN, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) slammed House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) for continuing to review Russian intel information despite the fact that he has recused himself from the investigation.
Friday morning, House members met with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on the state of the investigation into Russian ties to the Trump campaign – and Rosenstein’s reasons for hiring ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller to head it.
In a an interview with CNN’s Kate Bolduan, Speier was asked what was discussed in the meeting before talk turned to reports that Nunes continues to review intelligence relating to Russia despite the fact that he recused himself due to his ties to the Trump White House.
“Let me ask you specifically about the House investigation, congresswoman,” Bolduan began. “CNN has learned from a House intelligence committee source that Chairman Nunes is still reviewing intelligence related to Russia, despite the fact that, of course, he recused himself from all things Russia after that controversial episode involving the White House. Do you know this to be true yourself?”
“I believe it’s a huge mistake if Chairman Nunes is doing that,” an agitated Speier replied. “He has been identified as an agent of the president, and was clearly an agent of the president in that caper that went on some weeks ago where he went to the special source, came back, held a press conference, then went to the White House, when, in fact, it was from the White House to begin with.”
“The fact that he may, in fact, be reviewing these classified documents about Russia is very concerning to me,” she concluded.
Watch the video below via CNN:
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/house-intel-member-rips-agent-of-the-president-nunes-for-sticking-nose-back-into-russia-probe/
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