Trump's Card

[Tubby Isaacs]

Fuck me, you have to see that full answer to the question in the press conference to realize how bad it was. "That Pakistani gentleman's missing server".

[WOM]

If the language in the responses - from both sides of the aisle - is any indication, this could be a watershed moment. Treason...high crimes and misdemeanors....let's hope this is the beginning of the end of him.

[ursus arctos]

What NHH and Toby said.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm not sure. There's a significant pro-Mueller Republican demographic. This bollocks with Putin won't look good to them.

[ursus arctos]

He has 90 percent approval among self-identified Republicans, Tubbs.

The talking heads don’t matter, and the Congresspeople that tut tut then vote for his agenda are complicit bastards.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Have you ever seen anything like today?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't know, I just think his behaviour round Putin is a weak spot. Doesn't fit at all with his strongman America First self-image, whereas locking kids in cages does.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Politico's precis of congressional responses.

[San Bernardhinault]

Listen to Ursus. Self-identified Republicans are fine with everything Trump does; as are Republicans in Congress. Ignore the Sasses and Flakes and Corkers. They vote for everything Trumpish, whatever mealy mouthed words of pseudo-opposition they come up with.

The only (distant) thing for Trump to worry about is that the numbers of self-identified Republicans in the general electorate is falling. Right wingers in particular like to think they're too smart to be confined by party and describe themselves as "independent", and independents in these surveys are less loyal.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh, I'm ignoring Sasse and all, for sure.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/peteralexander/status/1018923742163070976?s=21

[Tubby Isaacs]

That's all a bit flat from Pence there.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Trump will either go down in a hail of metaphorical bullets or the USA will cease to exist as a democracy before 2020...

[George]

I honestly think a coup by combined elements of the military/intelligence is more likely to bring him down pre-2020 than either the political class or Mueller's investigation. Incredible thing to say but it's an incredible situation. The man is a Russian asset - either willingly or through extortion.

[Toby Gymshorts]

And it still won't matter to an awful lot of people who will just double down on Killary, Pizzagate and her e-mails.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I dunno. I'd still give the Mueller investigation and its tributaries better than even chances of toppling him. He's just not smart enough to pull off the treason he's so obviously engaged in, and neither are his bootlickers. They'll need to go full-on fascist to get out from under this, which they could try and aren't above trying, but I don't see them ultimately succeeding. Just a guess that the facts will matter in the long run...

I agree with that. Slowing economy would take a few votes away too. He's got shit awful overall approval even now, with very good economic numbers (albeit not great wages). I think he's vulnerable.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Coats has put out a statement.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats underscored the intelligence community's assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, countering his boss, President Donald Trump.

"The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers," Coats said in a statement. "We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security."

[Levin]

I think Alex Pareene captures the current situation well I think.

"Well, Sen. Jeff Flake finally had enough, and he did something. The retiring Arizona Republican sits on the Judiciary Committee. He recently began blocking Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, who have otherwise been getting confirmed as quickly as the administration can send them to the Senate. After a few days of coy silence, he went public: He was blocking judges until the Senate held a vote on tariffs unilaterally imposed by Trump. They were, finally, the breaking point. Flake thought them alarming enough to act.

Which means everything else the administration has done wasn’t the breaking point."

[San Bernardhinault]

And, of course, he's not going to block Kavanaugh...

[Cal Alamein]

Nope, he'll confirm the bastard in a second.

Flake is a flake who has thus far, been all talk. Like Corker, Ryan, Gowdy and other retirees, Flake has no guts to actually stand up to the treasonous twat or his equally disgusting party.

[ursus arctos]

On the other hand, if one's goal was to use such an "asset" to foment confusion, dissension and despair within this country and among this country and its traditional allies, it would be difficult to conceive of a more successful campaign.

[San Bernardhinault]

That assumes that an asset is conscious of the fact that they're an asset. If The Americans is anything to go by, most assets haven't got the faintest idea they're being used. It's easy to imagine Trump as one of those dumb, clueless idiots who Philip and Elizabeth could manipulate.

(edit: Ursus also makes a very good point, of course)

[San Bernardhinault]

Nope, he'll confirm the bastard in a second.

Flake is a flake who has thus far, been all talk. Like Corker, Ryan, Gowdy and other retirees, Flake has no guts to actually stand up to the treasonous twat or his equally disgusting party.

Or, more accurately, Flake - like Corker, Ryan, Gowdy and others - wants to take over the disgusting party as soon as Trump has gone and doesn't want to piss off his future constituency.

[Nefertiti2]

Meanwhile a Russian NRA supporter has just bene charged with spying

https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1018933566925725696

https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1018931822829494273

[WOM]

It's also possible that, in 1987, we was a sane, sober 40 year old businessman instead of a syphilitic old man who has great difficulty not saying exactly what comes into his addled mind.