Trump's Card

[Gerontophile]

If he fires the short-arsed, squirrel-faced spunkbucket Sessions, what sort of shit-sandwich candidate are we looking at to replace it?

[Ginger Yellow]

Rosenstein, at least in the interim. The guy who wrote the Comey letter, but also the guy who appointed Mueller.

In the long run, given the chain of events, you've got to assume it would be someone like Cohen or Kasowitz.

[ursus arctos]

[Satchmo Distel]

What does Sessions actually do with his work time? He has no positive agenda and Trump has tied his hands in terms of power. His credibility is fucked by his lying about the Russia metings.

[San Bernardhinault]

Sessions isn't going to lose his job. Trump will whine, and throw people under the bus, over and over again. But he doesn't have the balls to actually sack anyone. Has anyone in the Trump administration been sacked or moved yet? A handful have been forced to resign but even then, Trump was upset when they resigned. "You're fired" seems to be one of the least apt catch-phrases ever.

[Satchmo Distel]

He may not have done much actual firing in his old jobs. Someone else does it. Comey was sacked via Sessions' deputy IIRC. The Apprentice was just Trump fronting the producers' decisions and pretending they were his own.

[ursus arctos]

What Sessions does with his work time is (inter alia):

1) Encourage prosecutions for non-existent cases of "voter fraud" while killing all active DoJ attempts to enforce voting protections;
2) Lead the effort by ICE and the rest of the DOJ apparatus to criminalise the undocumented (and people of colour in general);
3) Neuter all forms of civil rights enforcement, especially those targeting law enforcement; and
4) Promote an intensified "War on Drugs", most recently by doubling down on the Constitutionally suspect application of "civil forfeiture" that has already seen the Federal Government taking more from citizens than all of the burglars in the country.

He's actually been extremely active in making this country a materially worse place, which is why he wanted the job in the first place and why he is hanging on to it notwithstanding his having been thrown under the bus by his boss. Anyone with a shred of self-respect would have resigned as soon as that interview hit the wires, but Sessions is too committed to enacting his grossly reactionary agenda to even slow down.

[Ginger Yellow]

So far, figure out how to disenfranchise minorities.

[ursus arctos]

Spicey has left the building, reportedly "enraged" over 45s pick of hedgie pal Scaramucci as the new Communications Director.

Kasowitz is indeed gone, with John Dowd (who at least knows what he is doing) taking over the lead role in the circus.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Some easy money for Spicer in memoirs?

[ursus arctos]

There are rumors that he is bound by a NDA, but we will find out soon enough.

[Tubby Isaacs]

If there is one, is it more likely he signed it as a condition of the job or just signed it?

[Ginger Yellow]

Why would you "just" sign an NDA?

[Tubby Isaacs]

As part of a deal.

[Ginger Yellow]

Well it wouldn't be "just" then. But, anyway, apparently Trump commonly makes his employees sign NDAs, so I expect it's the former.

[Satchmo Distel]

Trump made his transition team sign an NDA and there's a revealing quote at the bottom of this piece about ex-staffers writing books

http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald...eements-232275

However the enforcement powers are limited. If the info is not classified, the best Trump could do would be a cease and desist order. There's no power to prosecute, no crime committed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Well it wouldn't be "just" then. But, anyway, apparently Trump commonly makes his employees sign NDAs, so I expect it's the former.

I meant signed one "just now".

[ursus arctos]

Ah, Tubbs. No one in his right mind would do that, especially as he wasn't fired, but resigned.

As Satchmo notes, there are interesting questions as to the enforceability of NDA's in the public sector.

We may very well have a test case now.

[San Bernardhinault]

I guess that an NDA might be valid for the campaign, and possibly for the transition. But I can't imagine someone paid by the public can be bound by one, apart from (of course) when something is actually confidential.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I was thinking in terms of Spicer having had an offer he couldn't refuse.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

So what kind of Cunt is this Cunt?

[ursus arctos]

He's an ex-Goldman guy who sold his hedge fund to the Chinese and looks like an extra from the Wolf of Wall Street

[Nocturnal Submission]

I think that the main question is if he really will do the fandango.

[San Bernardhinault]

It's part of the slow but steady shift in Trumpland that has seem the tide move against Political and media people like Spicer and Priebus and Sessions and even alt-righty types like Bannon. And instead replace them with people Trump is comfortable with - which is angry generals on foreign policy, and arsehole New Yorkers, the Worst of Wall Street, on domestic policy - the likes of Kushner and Mnuchin and so on.

it's going to end up just being Hedgies and Goldman in the Trump administration, working to all enrich themselves a bit more...

[ursus arctos]

And Kellyanne

She's still my pick for last non-family member in the bunker.