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956 Worldwide

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Posts posted by 956 Worldwide

  1. 2 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

    https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/capitol-riot-senior-trump-official-calls-him-a-fascist.html

     

     

     

     

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    Trump’s world has grown ever smaller as the damage he inflicts on the United States continues to swell. Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol, which left five dead, including a police officer, prompted resignations in the administration and calls for Trump to do the same and threats — from Democratic and Republican lawmakers — of a second impeachment as well as vaguer discussions about the 25th Amendment. Trump is an increasingly symbolic figure — Norma Desmond with the nuclear codes and sycophantic butlers in his ears on a West Wing Sunset Boulevard soundstage. With no power left to grab, many staffers spent the weeks following November 3 making themselves scarce, plotting their post-White House careers, avoiding the president’s calls.

    But many others are keeping their heads down and keeping their jobs, citing, among other self-serving interests, a desire to remain on their health care plans, according to my interviews with staffers. Others justify their continued employment by citing the demands of the continuity of government.

    “There’s not a single person I have talked to at any level, from 23-year-old assistants to members of the Cabinet, who are not disgusted and ashamed with what has happened,” the senior administration official said, adding that the conversations among remaining officials were about how to handle the next twelve days before Joe Biden’s administration — and whether to continue to be a part of the transition of power at all. “It’s different for everybody. If you’re a regular domestic policy staffer in the West Wing or the EEOB, the implications of you quitting are different than if you’re a senior national security official, or you’re tasked with contributing to the continuity of government.”

    “We are in a terrible spot,” the official said, “You can’t just say, ‘Well, this is outrageous and I quit’ in this situation.”

    Trump’s inner circle has contracted amid the self-created chaos and carnage. For this reason, resignations have not had much of an effect on him directly. “He may not even notice,” one adviser said. “People aren’t around to begin with. There aren’t policy meetings with the president and eight or ten people in there anymore.”

    Advisers have expressed concern and anger over Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, whose actions have been perceived as an effort to secure employment with Trump in his post-presidency, perhaps at the Trump Organization.  “Jared has been telling people, ‘Don’t even deal with him anymore,’” one adviser said. “Mark’s responsible for bringing kook after crazy after conniver after Rudy into the West Wing.” A former senior White House official said, “Morale plummeted under him, huge mistakes were made — and now he’s scrambling to stick around after. He’s a dishonest asshole who pretends to be this religious Southern gentleman. Fuck that.”

    The senior administration official put it this way: “The only way it gets to this point are a thousand really bad small decisions. The first time Sidney Powell calls the White House switchboard and is allowed to speak to the president, the next thing you know she and others are in the West Wing — these are areas where the chief of staff has unilateral authority to do what he wants to do.” Instead, the official said, Meadows tells Trump what he wants to hear, and often calls whomever Trump has directed him to call, repeats what Trump told him to say, and then apologizes, explaining that he just needs to be able to tell the boss that he followed his orders.

    Meanwhile, the yes-men are countered mostly by the lawyers, who have tried to convey to Trump that he has put himself at risk of prosecution — not just by inciting Wednesday’s riot, for which the Justice Department is reportedly open to pursuing charges — but for his phone call to Georgia election officials, in which he attempted to pressure them to overturn the results, as well as in the many ongoing investigations related to his businesses and finances.

    “It’s a lot to adjust to. If you think you’re going to be there for four more years, it’s a bit jarring,” the adviser said. “The smart lawyers have gotten to him. It’s all hit him since yesterday: You may have legal exposure from yesterday. You definitely have legal exposure from other things. You have less than two weeks to remain ensconced in here with executive privilege.” 

    This adviser, who spoke to Trump on Wednesday amid the siege, said Trump watched the events on television intently. CNN reported that he was so excited by the action, it “freaked out” some staffers around him. The adviser told me that Trump expressed disgust on aesthetic grounds over how “low class” his supporters looked. “He doesn’t like low class things,” the adviser said, explaining that Trump had a similar reaction over the summer to a video of Brad Parscale, his former campaign manager, shirtless and drinking a beer in his driveway during a mental health emergency in which police tackled him and seized his weapons. “He kept mentioning, ‘Oh, did you see him in his beer shirt?’ He was annoyed. To him, it’s just low class, in other words.”

    The adviser said that Trump recently offered them a pardon, although they have not been charged with any crime. The adviser “politely declined.” Others are taking Trump’s pardon offers more seriously, whether they’ve been investigated or are at risk of jail time or not. “He’s just talking up a storm about giving pardons to allies: His kids, and their significant others, and staffers. He’s pretty generous with the offers. When you’re offered one, it’s like, Should I take it? Is it like insurance?”

    One person close to Trump’s legal team told me that the lawyers have struggled to get his attention. “He’s sort of turning on everybody. The president is so visceral, he just can’t hear people unless he can respect them. And he thinks everybody’s a traitor, even the people who got him through impeachment. It’s just nuts.”

     

    Wait. So a NYC billionaire actually doesn’t feel a sense of solidarity with realtors and hillbillies from places like Tyler and Conway, Arkansas? 

  2. I think you’ll see Antonio Doyle and Andre White at the LB spot, White got a lot of meaningful minutes and Doyle somewhat less— but he saw the field and has the physical tools.

    Layden Robinson will man either a guard or center spot, I think probably guard and Matthews at center.  Kenyon Green is solid as they come.

    I think they’ll trot out a decent line and it will be a question of time to gel. They won’t be at the level of 2020 but it’s not going to be a total shitshow.

    DL, secondary, RB will be the team strength. Wydermyer will be one of the best TEs in the nation but depth will be iffy given injuries. QB will be a bigger battle than some think between Calzada and King in the spring, and the difference between a freshman and a sophomore in the physical department is huge.

    Just the lack of experience at QB and OL means that the team won’t be as good as 2020 but they won’t suck and given the disorder at Auburn and LSU should be second in the SEC-W.

  3. Dear Senator Cruz,

     

    I am a 7th generation Texan, a former Republican voter, and a constituent. It is my civic duty to tell you that your recent words and actions have brought dishonor on our state and your office. They have damaged the Constitutional order. They have diminished the cause of liberty and freedom at home, diminished our standing abroad with friends and Allies, and furthered the goals of our authoritarian adversaries. And they have directly contributed to the death of several American citizens and an officer of the peace.

     

    You have violated your oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against enemies foreign and domestic; in fact you joined forces with enemies to undermine the duly elected President-elect of the United States. You have failed to advance the interests of your constituents in Texas. And you have failed in your duty as an elected official to tell the truth and work to strengthen, not undermine our Republic. You have chosen to tear the fabric of our nation apart in pursuit of partisan political gains and the favor of a man who has repeatedly treated you with disdain and contempt. 

     

    An honorable public servant would tender his resignation immediately; failing that I will support any efforts to impeach you. I look forward to the day when you no longer represent the greatest state in the union and when your voice is no longer heard in the world’s greatest deliberative body. 

     

    Eagerly awaiting your resignation or removal,

     

    956

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  4. Real talk, I’d hope employers will be judicious when it comes to career officials, because the government needed people to keep processing intelligence, negotiating, investigating crimes, and the like. As we saw during the impeachment hearings, a lot of the career officials are our very best and remained committed to their oaths.

    That said, people— even “junior”—should absolutely be pressed if they jumped to grab that sweet secondment to the White House, or served in a Senate confirmed role, or suspiciously grabbed a GS gig at the policy level after just a short stint in operations.  Some of these people were true Trump believers. A lot more saw the chance to turbocharge their careers because the real experts and senior people were shut out and pushed out as “disloyal.” And yeah, that reveals a lot about character. 

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  5. These are some shit resignations. The Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, a Deputy Press Secretary, DeVos. No one seriously important. 
     

    All these people are the shitbirds we thought they were. IDGAF what Lindsay Graham says, the Republic could survive and thrive with Pompeo out on his ass yesterday, but that would be a signal MAGA world couldn’t misinterpret and he could say goodbye to 2024. 
     

    Narrator: He won’t win 2024 because he’s like Shrek but evil.

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  6. Betsy DeVos is pissed that Trump’s crew of hillbillies and bozos are now hindering her life’s work of making sure minorities can’t have schoolbooks. She should be shoved inside a locker at Houston Kashmere high school and made to survive off of old chewing gum.

  7. 8 hours ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

    Fuzzy, John Daly and Jack Nicklaus would be my guesses.  Maybe Tiger, because he loves raw-dogging pornstars, too.

    And Babe Didrickson Zaharias (Texan) who has been dead for 65 years and doesn’t deserve to be linked with this asshat.

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  8. 17 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

    While there is truth to this I’m a believer of the idea of tone being set from the top. Hitler and Mussolini we not driven to do what they did by the German/Italian people.  They utilized massive propaganda operations conditioning their populations to accept or ignore their atrocities. But you are right in the sense there are no innocent nazis.

    If you truly believe that the election was illegally manipulated by shadowy forces and a usurper is taking office, then I can see how you could reach the conclusion that you had to take action. So in this sense, they are idoits being manipulated. 
     

    That said, they are being manipulated because they are idoits, and because they are a particular kind of idoit that is drawn to racist, authoritarian, hatred.  It’s the sugar that makes the conspiracy medicine go down for them.  

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