film / tv / substack / social media / lists / web / celeb / pajiba love / misc / about / cbr
film / tv / substack / web / celeb

19-good-place.jpg

Morning Briefing: It's Going To Be One Of Those Days

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | November 3, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | November 3, 2017 |


Among the trending terms this morning on Twitter is “O God,” as in, “O God, it’s going to be one of those days, isn’t it?” Judging by Donald Trump’s attacks on his political opponents this morning, there’s almost certainly something coming down the pipeline.

Trump is also citing Donna Brazile’s book. So, thanks for that Donna Brazile. Thanks so much! I hope you sell so many books, and I hope it was worth it. Again, let me reiterate: Hillary infused a struggling DNC with a lot of money. The DNC, in turn, made it more difficult for Bernie to fundraise from Democrats (Bernie did not ultimately struggle in this regard). In other words, a Democratic candidate colluded with a PRIVATE ORGANIZATION to make it more difficult for the SOCIALIST CANDIDATE to raise money and win the DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY.

Again, I am not saying that what Hillary and the DNC did was a good thing. It was dicey. What I am saying is that there was nothing illegal about it, and it would be really strange for the FBI and DOJ to investigate because THERE ARE NO CHARGES. Cite one criminal statute, motherfucker. CITE ONE.

Again, thanks Donna. Thanks for giving Donny one more cudgel with which to beat Hillary, a private citizen who is writing books and hanging out with her grandchildren now.

Anyway, the reason Trump is attacking political opponents today is that his Attorney General is getting pilloried because it’s now even MORE obvious than it was before that Jeff Sessions committed perjury. That’s going to create a sticky situation for everyone. We all hate Jeff Sessions, including the President. We’d all love to see Jeff Sessions resign. But, we all worry about the Attorney General — who would not be recused — that Trump might appoint to replace him, and whether his new appointee would fire Bob Mueller.

Bob Mueller doesn’t seem to be concerned. And he’s got Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Sam Clovis, and Jeff Sessions bent over a barrel, and he’s almost certainly got Michael Flynn and Jared Kushner in his sights, with the latter already being thrown under the bus by the President. Meanwhile, Trump is lashing out. It’s tense; it feels like a race between Mueller’s investigation and Trump’s desire to fire him. The good news is, the more that Mueller uncovers, the more difficult it would be for Trump to fire him.

— Here’s our dumbass quotes section:

“But also from the standpoint of sexual assault, when the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts.” — Energy Secretary Rick Perry, suggesting that fossil fuels help prevent rape.

“Lemme tell you, the one that matters is me,” Trump said. “I am the only one that matters. Because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be. You’ve seen that, you’ve seen it strongly.” — Donald Trump on why he hasn’t filled scores of senior positions at the State Department

— It often seems to me like we’re living in two different worlds. Our capitalistic world — where sexual harassers are finally starting to get their comeuppance — and our political world, where our Commander in Chief is a known sexual assaulter and no one seems to care. Hopefully, that will begin to change, as one current and three former female lawmakers have alleged that they have been harassed and groped by fellow Congressmen. No names are mentioned among the accused men, in part because the Congresswomen don’t believe it would do any good to name them. There’s no HR department in Congress. I hope, however, that this is just the beginning, that abusive, harassing, and predatory men in Congress — on both sides of the aisle — are identified and removed. Then, maybe America will also take a hard look at the President, again.

— This is a much bigger deal than many may realize, but yesterday, Robert Mercer stepped down as CEO of his hedge fund company and sold his share of Brietbart to his daughters. Robert Mercer — who was a big backer of Milo Yiannopoulos — apparently realized that associating with white nationalists is not good for business, and a lot of fancy rich friends shunned him. This is most important because Stephen Bannon was relying on Bob Mercer to help him fund that populist revolution. Without Mercer, Stephen Bannon’s ability to push his white nationalist propaganda and support candidates like Roy Moore is severely hampered.

— Finally, yes: Donald Trump’s Twitter account was deactivated by a rogue Twitter employee on his last day at work. It was deactivated for 11 minutes. Yes, that rogue Twitter employee is a hero. Yes, he inspired a lot of Twitter memes last night. Yes, it was a lot of fun. Then Trump woke up and started using that very same platform to call for the investigations of his political opponents.

Trump is going on his Asia trip today. Hopefully, he’ll stay away from Twitter for a few days.