Trump thread # 100 “Cannot you see that I, too, have a tall and beautiful person?”

[TheClaws]

Roman Emperor Nero wrote the above in a manual titled ‘Care of the Hair’. Nero was tyrannical, vain and cruel, and thought little of the lives of others. He also liked to erect buildings and carve his name into them. if only we could learn well from the past.

Old thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3104707--Uneasy-lies-the-head-that-wears-the-crown-as-it-should-be-Trump-thread-continued

Fox are ramping up the smear campaign against Mueller. This is propaganda, no question, and Fox should be ashamed.

Fox News‏Verified account
@FoxNews
25m25 minutes ago
More
.@jessebwatters: "It's like the @FBI had Michael Moore investigating the President of the United States." @WattersWorld

Another Saturday Night Massacre, this time on a Friday. It's a well thought out date, the beginning of Christmas weekend, when the majority of people are going to be out and about and NOT watching TV or listening to the radio.

It's just scary. There seems to be increasing apathy regarding Scrotus' actions, so many people seem to be thinking "what now?", but in the same way a parent regards a child that throws tantrums. Eventually you just roll your eyes and wait.

And if there are anti-Scrotus protests, you can expect them to turn violent. Scrotus has already shown that he's not above riling his fan base up and suggesting they 'take them out' wrt protesters.

Scary times.

lionheart thank you. Me and DH discuss this almost every night, that was a fabulous summary.

She must mean the MAGAs/Trumpers, right? They won, after all.

Fox News‏Verified account @FoxNews
37m37 minutes ago
More
.@JudgeJeanine: "There's a core group of arrogant, corrupt, and lawless individuals that felt that they - and not we - should decide a presidential election."

Good morning all, great though depressing to catch-up on this thread. Thank you for the excellent thread title TheClaws, though badbadhusky's would MAGA, too
Pain - on the hiding thread thing - I just always tick "Watch this thread" whenever I go on to a new thread I want to watch and then access it from "Threads I'm watching". (Threads I'm watching are not necessarily threads I'm on!)
Now, about those "improperly" obtained emails:
Scott Dworkin‏Verified account @funder
5m5 minutes ago

It was just revealed Robert Mueller has tens of thousands of Trump transition emails, which he acquired without the Trump team knowing. Which means he probably has their campaign, personal & business emails as well. That explains why they’ve been so hysterical. #ProtectMueller

Also this Buzzfeed article may or may not of interest?
…Transition emails GSA lawyer disputes Trump's camp's claims

I just found this interesting. (I've never heard of the guy before, but I am very ignorant and have the attention span of a gnat, he's apparently a film director?)

James Gunn‏Verified account @JamesGunn
8h8 hours ago

James Gunn Retweeted Captain Common Sense

In my years on social networking I have never spoken out politically. But we’re in a national crisis with an incompetent President forging a full-blown attack on facts and journalism in the style of Hitler and Putin. I’m okay with losing fans with my choice to speak out.

James Gunn added,
Captain Common Sense
@Capt_Patriot
Director James Gunn losing fans with every one-side political tweet he makes. You're alienating half your audience and I'm losing interest fast! @MarvelStudios @WaltDisneyCo twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/941790757098217472 …
2,326 replies 10,050 retweets 51,062 likes

Trump lawyer denies rumours Trump is considering firing Mueller. Not sure how far to trust the veracity of Trump lawyers though, plus they may not be fully in the know themselves. Additionally, Trump is well-known to do things in the spur of the moment.

thehill.com/homenews/administration/365289-trump-lawyer-denies-rumors-of-muellers-impending-firing

Renato Mariotti‏Verified account
@renato_mariotti
]THREAD: Why are Trump’s lawyers upset that Mueller obtained transition emails from a government agency? (Hint: They’re just playing politics, but this is a bad sign for them.)
1/ Today @axios reported that Mueller obtained tens of thousands of emails from the General Services Administration, which possessed them.
2/ @axios reported that the emails included very frank discussions as well as emails from Jared Kushner. Trump’s team was unaware that Mueller possessed the emails and were surprised when Mueller’s team asked questions based on the emails.
3/ Now Trump’s team has written a letter to Congress, complaining that some of the materials were “susceptible to privilege claims.” So what does this mean?
4/ First of all, it’s not unusual at all for prosecutors to obtain emails from other parties. That’s extremely common in white collar criminal investigations and is not improper.
5/ What is unusual here is that Mueller obtained emails from GSA even though he could have obtained (many of) the same emails from lawyers for the Trump Transition.
6/ Typically, in a white collar case, prosecutors obtain as many emails and documents as possible from defense attorneys instead of from another source.
7/ That’s because the defense team would review the emails, take out the ones that are not relevant, sort the emails, and put them in a format could be useable by Mueller.
8/ When a prosecutor obtains emails from a third party, usually irrelevant emails aren’t sorted out. So why would Mueller get the emails from GSA instead?
9/ One reason comes to mind. Mueller was concerned that he wouldn’t receive all of the emails if he obtained them from the Trump team. That’s surprising and suggests that he has reason to distrust Trump’s team.
10/ It appears that obtaining the documents from GSA also allowed Mueller to surprise witnesses who were not prepared to talk about emails that they didn’t think he had.
11/ I doubt that’s why Mueller obtained emails from GSA because any good lawyer would have reviewed the emails with their client anyway prior to an interview. Either the defense lawyers were incompetent or they weren’t surprised as they’re letting on.
12/ One important issue I should note is that typically prosecutors cannot obtain emails from a third party without using a search warrant, not a subpoena.
13/ If that happened here, it would mean a federal judge found that there was good reason to believe that a crime was committed and the emails contained evidence of a crime.
14/ In any event, when a prosecutor obtains emails from a third party, privileged documents are not removed. Typically prosecutors use “taint teams” to remove privileged documents before the prosecution team reviews them.
15/ If Mueller obtained a privileged email, the defense would be able to exclude it as evidence at trial. Typically all that happens is that the defense raises the issue with the prosecutor, and if the prosecutor agrees it is privileged, they return the privileged document.
16/ Disputes over privilege are common when prosecutors obtain emails and documents from third parties. That’s very common. What’s uncommon is what the Trump lawyers did here.
17/ Instead of sending a letter to Mueller, the attorneys sent a letter to Congress. Why? Probably to try to feed the growing effort to fire Mueller and/or try to discredit him to Congressional Republicans.
18/ Note also that the lawyers don’t say that the emails are privileged. They merely claim that some of the emails are “susceptible to privilege claims.” That’s weak language that suggests they’re not confident they have a strong claim that some of the emails are privileged.
19/ The biggest conclusion I’d draw from their letter is that they’re concerned about Mueller’s investigation and are doing whatever they can to discredit it. Their claims themselves are weak and are meant to persuade people who know nothing about criminal investigations. /end

Renato Mariotti‏Verified account
@renato_mariotti
According to @BuzzFeedNews, the Trump transition agreed there would be no expectation of privacy as to emails sent via government servers. Accordingly, the government agency (TSA) produced the emails to Mueller without a warrant. If true, not an issue.

[link to the article Claws has already posted]

Norm Eisen‏Verified account
@NormEisen
Executive privilege does not apply until you are the executive; these documents are from the transition, before Trump became the executive; QED no executive privilege. Grasping at straws here.
I was the Deputy GC of a Transition (Obama-Biden 08). I warned everyone: there is NO expectation of privacy in your transition emails. The clue: emails are "[email protected]." The whining letter from the Trump Transition tacitly admits this: it ends by asking for a legislative fix

Amy Siskind‏Verified account
@Amy_Siskind
“Obtained emails illegally” - can you imagine such a thing? Or better yet, imagine if a foreign enemy illegally obtained emails of your political opponent, and you and your family and regime did everything you could to promote them, knowing this. 🤔

Sorry, it was ouais who linked to it!

Also, this would be great if true but as is said in the thread, it is speculative:

The Hoarse Whisperer‏
@HoarseWisperer
Settle in, politikids.

You're going to enjoy this...

I've read the full letter Trump transition team attorneys sent to legislators re: Mueller obtaining their emails.

It has a delicious reveal.

1. Mueller obtained ALL of the emails sent to/from Trump transition team accounts
2. The Trump gang only realized this after Mueller's team seemed to know all about their emails
3. This made them quite... upset
4. Thier lawyers then wrote the letter in the link to congressmen complaining about just how upsetting all of this is.

Here's the classically amusing reveal in the letter...

Earlier this year, Trump appointed the top attorney at the office responsible for providing all the electronics and email accounts the Trump transition team used.

That attorney's name was Richard Backler.

Now, as background, Backler was a white collar criminal defense attorney before his appointment.

He helped rich criminals beat government convictions for a firm with a name you'll find familiar.

Bracewell & Giuliani.

So, Trump appointed Backler and then Backler went and ensured Trump transition team attorneys that he would not allow his org (the GSA) to provide any of their emails to investigators.

One problem: Backler fell ill and ultimately passed away.

So, until Mueller's crew started asking Trump aides about those emails, they had absolutely no idea Mueller had them because they thought Trump's guy on the inside was running interference for them.

Let that one sink in.

Trump and his flunkies thought their friend at the GSA had locked their emails away literally in a vault no one could get to...

They thought their bodies were all buried.

As a result, Trump's people walked into their interviews with Mueller and team with a completely false sense of confidence that he didn't know what he already knew in spades.

They thought he was fishing. He was just reeling fish in.

Can you imagine the freakout that must have occurred in Trumpland when they realized their cleanup guy hadn't actually done the cleanup after all?

Alllllllll of the things they thought they had buried were not only not buried; Mueller had them in writing!

While this is just conjecture, I suspect the entire Trump orbit just realized that Mueller has a trove that entirely hangs them out to dry AND brings them down for obstruction and lying to Mueller to boot.

Trump appointed a Giuliani guy to protect him from Mueller...

...and then the guy went and died just as Mueller was coming a'calling.

Trump must be losing his freaking mind...

...even more panicked: Jared Kushner.

Mueller is gonna roast them all.

Note: Trump team knew Beckler had died. They didn’t know he had failed to lock down their electronics and emails - and didn’t know GSA staff had produced them all without telling anyone.

One more note: as the letter in the link lays out, Beckler was incapacitated by August. He was hospitalized when Mueller’s crew came a’knockin’.

perking I meant to say - I didn't know about the TPA. Thanks for posting that. The Cocktopus sounds terrifying.

Seasons greeting from you favourite Christmas elf on the shelf

mobile.twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/942263094998392832/video/1

Maggie Haberman has retweeted this.

mobile.twitter.com/thegarance/status/942252789345996801

As one of the comments below the tweet says -
'Once again, the Trump team is willing to make any argument, no matter how obviously or easily it can be debunked.'

If you're promulgating two separate realities, it doesn't matter if those who are outside the bubble can see it for what it is, as long as those inside have some vaguely plausible narrative they can hang their hat on. Then shout "fake news" and you're away.

I need to see the whole SNL. Scarlett is rocking Ivanka apparently

www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/12/17/scarlett_johansson_stops_by_snl_as_ivanka.html

Thanks for all the info and links everyone

The full cold open.

I prefer the elf on the shelf bit. And the theme music at the end.

I don't suppose Popes count for Evangelical Christians.
Pope Francis: fake and sensationalised news 'a very serious sin'

About @HoarseWisperer - so how much of that is true and how much is speculation? I thought the bit about Beckler having been going to protect them was true, except he became ill before he could accomplish it? Sorry to be stupid.

I think the fact he was appointed, fell ill and then died is true but these bits are the speculation:

So, Trump appointed Backler and then Backler went and ensured Trump transition team attorneys that he would not allow his org (the GSA) to provide any of their emails to investigators.

So, until Mueller's crew started asking Trump aides about those emails, they had absolutely no idea Mueller had them because they thought Trump's guy on the inside was running interference for them.

Let that one sink in.

Trump and his flunkies thought their friend at the GSA had locked their emails away literally in a vault no one could get to...

They thought their bodies were all buried.

As a result, Trump's people walked into their interviews with Mueller and team with a completely false sense of confidence that he didn't know what he already knew in spades.

Alllllllll of the things they thought they had buried were not only not buried; Mueller had them in writing!

We don't know if they asked Beckler to run interference, we don't know if they assumed all the bodies were hidden, but it does seem a fair inference given the reactions from the lawyers and from the GOP this week.

Ah, OK, thank you for the explanation, Pain. It's such a lovely story, I really hope it's true!

Thanks Lewji

Really worth looking at the link on this tweet
NowThis‏Verified account
@nowthisnews
Follow Follow @nowthisnews
More
This millionaire is revealing his taxes to show just how much the GOP tax plan favors the wealthy

This guy explains quite simply what a bonanza people with money will get from Trump's tax bill.

There's also this lovely last minute addition that wasn't in either versions of the bill that benefit the rich

Josh Keefe‏
@thejoshkeefe
BREAKING: Last-minute provision in the GOP tax bill, which wasn't in the Senate or House versions, would allow @realDonaldTrump and @BobCorker to potentially deduct millions in annual income. Latest with @davidsirota and @alexkotch

www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/last-minute-real-estate-tax-break-gop-bill-will-benefit-trump-2629381

is it like Voldemort?

We have rats occasionally. Our cat likes to go and fetch them from a ditch down the road. It’s a bit unfortunate really, but they are at least easier to catch than the mice he brings.

I would contact your local council environmental health team though and they can check that things are being done hygenically and that there is no risk of food contamination.

bollocks. Wrong thread

now countless lurkers know about our unfortunate issue but please note, I am now an excellent rat catcher

Ohyoubadkitten We have rats, we have the best rats here, we have a big fat orange one!