“In politics stupidity is not a handicap.” We know this now! Trump thread cont.

[TheClaws]

This is a quote of Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon has a number of quotes when Read through the lens of Trump are eerily prescient. Napoleon wasn’t of the same political bent as Trump necessarily, and he was certainly more cerebral, but the lust for power is the same.

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3191613-Even-if-you-subpoena-us-we-wont-turn-up-on-the-Trump-threads

Is Trump choosing Bolton, or is he just the only person who will agree to do the job? I think Maggie Haberman was suggesting that if Kelly goes they might not reappoint a Chief of Staff. Could that be how it ends? Trump by himself?

DH has arrived home from a late evening on call, I updated him on Trump’s latest manoeuvres.
His response - jeez, he really is turning into the Caligula of the modern age isn’t he?

In fact, Bolton is straight on Fox. Wastes no time whatsoever.

Fox News @FoxNews
16m16 minutes ago
More
.@AmbJohnBolton: “He may be a different kind of president than others, but I think that’s what the people voted for.” #TheStory

merrymouse was it Maggie Haberman that wrote that if Kelly went and no Chief of Staff was appointed in his stead, then really, what Trump is doing is turning the White House into Trump Co.? He may not have consciously set out to do that from the outset - and this is me musing now - but as time went on and he felt bureaucratic barriers that could lead to his failure, he could have decided to remove those barriers.

TheClaws, yes - I think the suggestion was that he would have a few people reporting to him, instead of one chief of staff, but that just sounds like chaos.

Difficult to imagine any competent person wanting to be chief of staff at the moment.

Apparently, 45 has been consulting with/watching Bolton for ages. I'm hoping that Bolton will try to be doctrinaire now he's been appointed.

This is referring to the notorious Guccifer 2.0.

More
JUST IN: DNC hacker accidentally revealed he was a Russian intel officer to US officials: report hill.cm/TG4JPQ0

New NSA John Bolton wrote this for the Wall Street Journal Just last month. Now he’s right in Trump’s ear.

Sorry, not last month. Late February, but still very recently.

TheClaws, unless Trump world has taken us into a different space-time continuum (which presently is not hard to believe), 28th February 2018 was indeed last month!
Sorry, deflecting from the bad news all round and the helplessness I feel in the face of it. I remain flummoxed as to how the checks and balances of the American constitution could let this cockwomble of a dotard get so far so fast. I’m convinced his intention is to turn the USA into a hereditary dictatorship and no-one will stop him. Though things like this 700 point drop in the Dow Jones average might just give his billionaire supprters pause, I don’t know? Cynically, I believe the GOP will only turn on him when their pockets are sufficiently threatened.

I am calm. I have calmly aacepted that this ends in a radioactive scrubland I don’t think anyone should underestimate the very real risk that Bolton presents.

The Wall Street Journal
@WSJ
Breaking: U.S. Senate passes $1.3 trillion spending bill, acting to avert a government shutdown with less than 24 hours to spare

[is the cloud act part of this? Will law enforcement officials now have the right to seek data directly from your service providers without obtaining a warrant first? This has implications for those outside of the US as well if so]

EU countries prepare to follow May and expel Russian diplomats

Five member states plan move as bloc’s leaders agree that Moscow likely source of Salisbury attack

amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/22/theresa-may-struggling-win-eu-support-russia-europe

Buried in the spending bill that Congress is considering are strict new punishments against Russia—including restrictions that bar many federal agencies from engaging financially or otherwise with the Kremlin and its backers on a number of fronts.

amp.thedailybeast.com/congress-snuck-new-russia-sanctions-into-spending-bill

From Jelani Cobb (Staff writer on the New Yorker) on Twitter:

“We should be clear: Trump is constructing a war-time cabinet. He is not systematic or strategic; he is driven by impulse rather than design. But by whatever mechanisms he did it, he is bringing together a team for war.”

lion had an article about how the firing of dowd might make the firing of trump more likely.

Another possibility:

Trump legal team shake-up clears path for possible Mueller interview

The president appears to be moving toward sitting down with the special counsel after John Dowd's departure

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna859241

Avoid reading if you want to keep down your breakfast/have a nightmare-free sleep

Manu Raju
@mkraju
Former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal: “After we had been intimate, he tried to pay me, and I actually didn't know how to take that," she said. Asked by @andersoncooper if Trump tried to hand her money, McDougal said, "He did."
The offer to pay “made me cry,” she said. “I felt really terrible about myself.”
Trump only talked about Melania once, saying she was intelligent because she’s multi-lingual; talked about Baron’s name but otherwise didn’t mention him, McDougal says
“All the time,” Trump told her, “I love you,” McDougal said
“He said I was beautiful like her,” McDougal says, referring to Trump allegedly comparing her to Ivanka

Thread detailin strange guccifer/gru/wikileaks/Brexit coincidents

mobile.twitter.com/peterjukes/status/977064686612074496

God pain I so regret ignoring your warning there.

On Bolton, super pacs and Cambridge Analytica, building on lion’s post upthread

nadinevanderVelde
@nadinevdVelde
Watch xenophobe #JohnBolton at CPAC bragging about his Mercer financed Super Pac & the use of #CambridgeAnalityca "data models" during campaign. He plans to Expand"activities" in 2018 to achieve a Filibuster proof national security majority in Senate.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Skg2_6OXQoI

I read somewhere that he wants to set up an 'alternative' WH, appoint 4 aides who report directly to him, they would not report to Chief of Staff as Kelly is probably going anyway and won't be replaced, and that he is modelling it on his business methods.
God help us

I remembered the name John Bolton from a few years back.

Daily Kos link

Where is Melania while all this is going on? It is like she has disappeared.

She’s busy with her cyber bullying campaign

roussette you may have read it upthread

It would be good if this stuck..
wamu.org/story/18/03/21/summons-issued-trump-emoluments-case/#.WrP2RTMvvrE.twitter
Deffo legit, the summons is visible on Twitter.

45's lawyers have 3 weeks to respond