Trump 2018: Resistance is Never Futile

[lionheart]

To pick up on the Star Trek motif.

Sometimes I cant believe what I'm reading....

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
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North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

Pp are trying to get him banned from Twitter because of that last tweet! How dare he fucking threaten nuclear war on social media! He's a dangerous man child. And needs to be got rid of ASAP.

These tweets did make me laugh!

Abstinence Enthusiast
@SortaBad
An interesting thing is that Trump is so awful, that you almost NEVER hear anyone mention how bad his hair is anymore, and he has maybe the worst hair of any famous person in the world
1:14 am · 3 Jan 2018

2m
Replying to @SortaBad
2012: lol trump has awful hair

2016: look at trump's tiny hands!

2018: i have constructed a make-shift bomb shelter out of the old bread the bakery throws away

That’s an awful lot of deflection going on - I wonder what shoes are about to drop

Things like this won’t be helping

NYT Opinion
@nytopinion
The founders of Fusion GPS say there are credible allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia

The Republicans’ Fake Investigations

<a class="break-all" href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fusion-gps.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur&referer=t.co/iZtN4InXPK?amp=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fusion-gps.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur&referer=t.co/iZtN4InXPK?amp=1

Sadly inevitable given their track record I think

Twitter says Trump's nuclear button tweet doesn't violate its rules against abusive behavior

mashable.com/2018/01/02/trump-tweets-nuclear-button.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Asha Rangappa
@AshaRangappa_
THREAD. This is an important read by Fusion GPS about the genesis of the so-called Steele dossier and its role in the FBI investigation. A few subtle points that may be missed:

1. The authors note that the conservative Washington Free Beacon – a.k.a. "Free Pass" Beacon, since no one is interested in questioning their role very much – as well as Democrat sources, funded the research into Trump's business dealings.
2. In particular, the authors note that the investigation was a "year long" one, "of which the Steele dossier is but one chapter." In fact, the task given to Steele was a "basic one," which was to look deeper into particular Trump deals
3. This is consistent with @DavidCornDC's reporting, which indicates that originally, the task given to Steele was a fairly "general inquiry."
4. This tells me that this was essentially one ongoing "investigation" – dropped off by one party and picked up by another – of which the Steele assignment was what is in investigative terms is called a "lead."
5. When I was in the FBI I took over investigations that had been worked on for a while by other agents. I can tell you that when you pick up an investigation midstream, you always benefit and are informed by all the progress that has been made until that point.
6. So if you decide to follow a "lead" – meaning a line of inquiry that warrants further investigation – you're already looking at enough information that raises the question, "Huh. I wonder what more is behind that."
7. My point is that at the point where Dems picked up the research, there was something there that suggested they dig further. And that "something" had been uncovered by Free Pass Beacon over the preceding nine months.
8. It's interesting to me that no one has asked to see the "report" that Fusion GPS provided to Free Pass Beacon in exchange for their funding. What did it say?

10. Free Pass Beacon says that it was all open source info, nothing to see here. Well, OK, if they paid tens, or hundreds of thousands of $$$ for 9 mos of Google searches then there is nothing damning that they would be revealed if they showed the report, right? 11. But House Intel Committee doesn't ask (they were, after all, donating to the Chair), and we're supposed to take their word that nothing they uncovered had any role in prompting the lead for Steele. Riiiiight. 12. In the end, none of this was the basis for the FBI investigation anyway, but to the extent that there is an arbitrary line being drawn in who is "responsible" for what the Steele dossier uncovered (something that was a surprise even to Steele, so hardly something engineered) 13. it seems to me that Free Pass Beacon has as many questions to answer as anyone else...but (shockingly!) no one on the House Intel Committee is interested in asking them

New campaign:

The Loyal Opposition
@TheLoyalO
#CallToAction:

Fusion GPS: "Conservative news outlets...have spun a succession of mendacious conspiracy theories about our motives and backers. We are happy to correct the record. In fact we already have."

#ReleaseTheTranscripts

Caroline O.
@RVAwonk
Russian propaganda peddlers are very interested in the Utah Senate race. Topics/hashtags related to Orrin Hatch & Mitt Romney are dominating right now, per @SecureDemocracy's Hamilton 68 Dashboard.

The #2 trending hashtag? #NeverRomney

Hey Republicans, are you still happy with your decision to let Russia take over your party?

It looks to me like you have a little problem on your hands...

Posted too soon

David Carroll🦅
@profcarroll
Replying to @RVAwonk and @SecureDemocracy
Old enough to remember when we made the mistake of mocking Romney for warning us about Russia

theweek.com/articles/640673/should-have-listened-mitt-romney-about-russia

FFS! Unintentionally posted too soon again

Caroline O.
@RVAwonk
It appears that Russian propagandists haven't forgotten about it, either. This could present a very interesting challenge for the GOP.

Daniel Dale
@ddale8
A day in the life of the president who doesn’t watch much TV primarily because of documents.

Tea Pain
@TeaPainUSA
Wanna see what made Trump's cheese slide off his cracker today?

THERE WAS A MOLE inside the Trump campaign reportin' to the FBI! (from tonight's NYT bombshell)

[lots of differing views as to whether the source from team trump is Papadopoulos or not]

John Dean: Nixon ‘Might Have Survived If There’d Been a Fox News’

The star witness of the Watergate investigation says the Russia scandal is far from over, but Trump has advantages his predecessor didn’t.

www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/02/john-dean-nixon-might-have-survived-if-thered-been-a-fox-news-216207

I can’t copy and paste the whole thing this morning but this is a very good thread

George Lakoff
@GeorgeLakoff
Trump uses social media as a weapon to control the news cycle. It works like a charm. His tweets are tactical rather than substantive. They mostly fall into one of these four categories.

mobile.twitter.com/GeorgeLakoff/status/948424436058791937

I don't think he even wrote the nuclear button tweet himself, don't think the word 'depleted' is in his personal dictionary and just sounds a bit too well written for him. But what idiot working for him would think that would be a good thing to tweet out?!

don't think the word 'depleted' is in his personal dictionary and just sounds a bit too well written for him

I agree, but he could have briefed a literate flunky to write it for him and approved the copy. Using bigly words that make him look smart was probably part of the brief.

Someone trying to divert attention away from the mueller investigation because they are also complicit in some way?

That could be it Pain it is a good diversion

It would be interesting to draw a news map with the diversions and the important news.

It seems NK has resumed the hot line with SK, in the meantime.

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/03/north-korea-reopens-communications-channel-seoul

I'm waiting nervously, as I suspect he would happily start a nuclear war to divert attention from Russia.

Great article as ever by John Pavlovitz on Trump trying to start a war on Twitter

johnpavlovitz.com/2017/08/09/war-not-twitter-war-mr-president/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=johnpavlovitz

I like maddow’s philisophy on covering trump. Treat him like a silent movie - comment on what he does and the actions he takes, and highlights the consequences that follow but ignore what he says. At least, that was my interpretation of what she said (awhile ago now) and I think it’s a sensible policy

I agree.

Also because there is no relationship between what he says or what he does (or signs).