You’re right, but that overlooks the pettiness of his character. It’s one of his defining characteristics. Also malevolent. And cheap. Why spend a dime of his rubes’ money to fix the lawn when he can save it to fund his new post-“administration” adventures in propaganda, and trash the White House in advance of President Elect Biden’s term? I don’t think he’d ever pass up a chance for a two-fer like that.
You’re probably right, especially considering that at least some of the damage apparently dates from WH lawn events during the RNC in August.
He’ll never get his security deposit back at this rate.
Not to mention that his donors are pulling out. I don’t know if this is pay-walled, but here’s the main part: WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s campaign is aggressively seeking donations to pay for lawsuits and recounts in a handful of states where Democrat Joe Biden won, but some GOP donors are already moving on to other fights, such as a pair of runoff elections in Georgia that may decide control of the U.S. Senate.
An abandonment of institutional Republican donors for Trump’s legal cause would leave the campaign in a tough spot as it vows to launch a series of legal battles in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and elsewhere – a multifront effort that would almost certainly require the party to shell out tens of millions of dollars in legal fees.
Womp womp…
But that wouldn’t leave enough money for him to steal.
Tata is a real piece of work:
Trump is getting a Defense Department headed by dead-enders and deplorables. Such people can be very useful to a would-be dictator, because they will never say ‘you can’t do that, Sir.’
One strain of thought is that it’s ridiculous and alarmist to suggest that this might be about Trump acquiring a set of yes-men who will rubber-stamp sending troops into US cities to fire on peaceful protesters. But Trump did it in Portland. So why is it ridiculous to think he might try it again?
Another strain of thought is that these deplorables will raise no objection to the selling of US national security secrets to any adversary willing to pay. That, too, seems on-brand for Trump.
A third idea is that these mooks will facilitate the creation of no-bid contracts that will funnel taxpayer dollars into Trump’s pocket. Again, quite plausible.
For the sake of the peace, I guess we have to hope it’s the second and/or third option at work here and not the first.
But recall that in addition to tearing up the White House lawn, Trump is increasing fortifications around the property:
Trump may be planning for a long period of armed conflict in the USA. Certainly he’d be encouraged in such plans by Putin and other adversaries. It would take the USA right off the global stage as a factor in territory grabs by Russia, China, or anyone else ready to get while the getting is good.
I agree, Trump and his collaborators are gearing up for an extra-legal claim to power. Are we going to do anything about it?
I hate to admit it, but Barr’s directive yesterday may have been a good thing.
The US Postal Service, the guys that took down Bannon. And until Bannon went down, Trump probably didn’t even know that the Postal Service had their own cops and investigators, so he never corrupted them. And Dejoy or not, the Postal Investigators don’t like fuckery around mail fraud.
I’m glad they’re on the case, because O’Keefe and Project Veritas have already started tweeting about how the guy was forced to “sign a bunch of papers he didn’t understand”. I hope they shut that down, and I hope it’s amusing.
The purge continues: "The White House has removed the scientist responsible for the National Climate Assessment, the federal government’s premier contribution to climate knowledge and the foundation for regulations to combat global warming, in what critics interpreted as the latest sign that the Trump administration intends to use its remaining months in office to continue impeding climate science and policy.
Michael Kuperberg, executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces the climate assessment, was told Friday that he would no longer lead that organization,…"
…“he is expected to be replaced by David Legates, a deputy assistant secretary at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who previously worked closely with climate change denial groups.”
“Also on Friday, Neil Chatterjee, head of the agency that regulates the nation’s utility markets, was demoted by the White House, after he publicly supported the use of renewable power.”
All from NY Times
Is also worth noting that the small print on Trump’s public facing appeals for money says that half of donations for the legal fund will be used to pay down debt incurred by the Trump election campaign.
Robot_Arm
Clusterfuck 2: The Wrath of Don
I vote this
Is The Lincoln Project still operating? Releasing material?
The best thing about Trump’s presidency is that it exposed how weak our political system is. A brutally cold bucket of ice water dumped on our heads in the morning.
Right, I heard Trump being described this morning as a stress test for American democracy, assuming it survives him.
According to the Washington Post, they are indeed still operating and are currently targeting Trump’s poor excuse for a legal team. You know: Rudy Colludi, etc.
A part of thinks it wouldn’t be terrible if he partially succeeds, just enough to scare the ever-living fuck out of his enabling party members and voters, and also those who never considered voting for him but casually split their tickets because ‘both sides’ are equally bad.
Problem is, there’s a fine line between a partially successful coup that gets yanked back by collective outrage, and all hell breaking loose. It doesn’t take much past that line to end up with either a civil war or an authoritarian state.
Who here still thinks I’m being chicken little or alarmist? Remember that right now, your president has not only refused to concede but is purging top military leadership and replacing them with loyalists, just as you would find in any dictatorship.
Individual 1’s legal team put out a Tweet claiming that they don’t work for him, nor his campaign, but for the Republican Party. But they made it so that nobody could reply to their tweet.
from that Twitter feed:
This sounds suspiciously like Individual 1.