All entries by this author
Oct 3rd, 2019 4:47 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Trump is generous though. He doesn’t share his views on Biden with Ukraine only – no indeed! China gets to hear his opinions on the subject too.
When Donald Trump suggested today, at a press conference, that China should investigate Joe Biden he said he’d never actually pushed Chinese leader Xi Jinping to investigate his political rivals.
Now CNN reports that Trump discussed Biden and Elizabeth Warren with Xi during a whole call. He also reportedly told Xi he’d keep quiet about the protests in Hong Kong, so long as trade talks between China and the US progressed:
During a phone call with Xi on June 18, Trump raised Biden’s political prospects as well as those of Sen. Elizabeth
…
Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
1 Comment »
Tags: Trump
Oct 3rd, 2019 4:31 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Another item for the list:
President Donald Trump ordered the removal of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch from her post in Ukraine following complaints by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Trump’s personal lawyer gets to decide who is ambassador to Ukraine. Interesting.
Yovanovitch, who was recalled months earlier than expected in May 2019, was accused by Giuliani without evidence of trying to undermine the President and blocking efforts to investigate Democrats like former Vice President Joe Biden. According to the Wall Street Journal, a person familiar with the matter said that State Department officials were told that her removal was “a priority” for Trump.
Because Trump doesn’t think about “is she a good … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Oct 3rd, 2019 12:22 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
That didn’t go well.
Legendary journalist Bob Woodward is coming under heavy fire for the questions he asked while interviewing the Pulitzer-winning investigative team of Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey at a Washington, DC, event on Wednesday night. After Woodward repeatedly interrupted Kantor and Twohey and posited that Harvey Weinstein’s behavior could have been “weird foreplay,” audience members booed Woodward, and some attendees even walked out of the event.
Kantor and Twohey are the Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. They chose Woodward to interview them.
Some audience members began to yell back at Woodward as he repeatedly interrupted Kantor and Twohey, saying, “Let them finish!” and “Every woman deserves to be heard!”
And as the conversation
…
Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
5 comments
Oct 3rd, 2019 11:40 am |
By Ophelia Benson
More on Trump’s narcissism (it’s a long piece):
[F]rom the perspective of the public at large, the debate over whether Trump meets the clinical diagnostic criteria for NPD—or whether psychiatrists can and should answer that question without directly examining him—is beside the point. The goal of a diagnosis is to help a clinician guide treatment. The question facing the public is very different: Does the president of the United States exhibit a consistent pattern of behavior that suggests he is incapable of properly discharging the duties of his office?
Even Trump’s own allies recognize the degree of his narcissism. When he launched racist attacks on four congresswomen of color, Senator Lindsey Graham explained, “That’s just the way he is.
…
Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
1 Comment »
Tags: Trump
Oct 3rd, 2019 10:22 am |
By Ophelia Benson
George Conway takes an extended look at the question of Trump’s disordered behavior.
As Bob Woodward recounts at length in his book Fear, members of Trump’s criminal-defense team fought both Trump and Mueller tooth and nail to keep Trump from being interviewed by the Office of Special Counsel. A practice testimonial session ended with Trump spouting wild, baseless assertions in a rage. Woodward quotes Trump’s outside counsel John Dowd as saying that Trump “just made something up” in response to one question. “That’s his nature.” Woodward also recounts Dowd’s thinking when he argued to Trump that the president was “not really capable” of answering Mueller’s questions face to face. Dowd had “to dress it up as much as
…
Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
2 comments
Tags: Trump
Oct 3rd, 2019 9:57 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Is he thinking (or more likely being told) that if he does it openly then it’s not a crime?
Historian Kevin Kruse:
This is apparently going to be the play — repeat the impeachable offense out in the open and pretend that it’s a totally normal thing to do.
Legal eagles on Twitter are pointing out that it’s still a crime. Hillary Clinton for one:
Someone should inform the president that impeachable offenses committed on national television still count.
Laurence Tribe for another:
Nixon: “ If the president does it, it’s not illegal.”
Trump: “If this stable genius does it in broad daylight, it couldn’t be impeachable.”
Q: How dumb does he think we are?
A: Dumb
…
Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
4 comments
Tags: Trump
Oct 3rd, 2019 9:14 am |
By Ophelia Benson
What’s new? Trump on the lawn telling reporters he did tell Ukraine to “investigate” Bidens.
Trump admits he asked Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden, and asks China to do the same. Like Nixon telling America “I ordered the break in.”
The Guardian reports:
Donald Trump, speaking outside the White House, said Ukraine should investigate his rival Joe Biden – exactly the thing Trump is under threat of impeachment for – and added that China should also start a probe.
“If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said when asked what he wanted Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to do.
“I would say President Zelenskiy, if it was me, I
…
Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
4 comments
Tags: Trump
Oct 2nd, 2019 2:07 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
After the car crash sit down with President Niinistö there was a car crash press conference with President Niinistö.
It starts at about 1:15.
It’s a replay of the sitdown.
That’s one of the creepiest things about watching and listening to Trump – the repetition. The endless, endless, demented repetition. He has his talking points and he repeats them on Twitter and at sit downs and at press conferences and at press sprays and doubtless every couple of minutes everywhere else. The call was perfect, perfect. Lindsey Graham said “I never knew you were that nice.” It was perfect, perfect, not a thing wrong with it. He called Ukraine to get permission to share the transcript; he didn’t want to … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
5 comments
Tags: Trump
Oct 2nd, 2019 12:50 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
State theocracy from the governor of Kentucky:
↓STUDENTS↓
#BringYourBible to School Day is THIS Thursday, Oct. 3!
The Judeo-Christian principles that are bound in this book are timeless, containing an amazing amount of history, knowledge, wisdom and guidance…
Bring it. Read it. Share it.
It’s attached to a video in which he says he wants to encourage every single student in Kentucky to do this bible thing. I didn’t watch the rest; I’ve had enough sick-making video for one day.
But about that tweet, and even apart from the church-state issue, and the other religions issue, and the what does that have to do with school anyway issue, there is also the content of what he says. Which “Judeo-Christian … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
7 comments
Oct 2nd, 2019 10:56 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Trump just did an Oval Office sit down with the president of Finland, which he used to have a terrifying public freakout.
Go to 45 minutes to watch him do it.
Is it true that “he couldn’t carry his jockstrap” is a saying? Trump says it is, and that it applies to Adam Schiff with respect to Mike Pompeo.
… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
17 comments
Tags: President Crazy, Trump
Oct 2nd, 2019 10:36 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The Independent thinks it’s marvelous.
The Old Vic theatre in London is the latest establishment to scrap single-sex toilets in favour of more inclusive alternatives.
As part of a major refurbishment, the 201-year-old theatre has replaced signs on male and female lavatories with pictures of cubicles or urinals.
The brand new facilities have been installed to allow “people to make their own decision about which loo is suitable for them,” the theatre has said.
Not in the case of women who don’t want to share the loo with men they haven’t.
Women don’t want to share a room with men at urinals, and given that whole thing about men placing tiny cameras in women’s toilets they’re not all that … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
9 comments
Oct 2nd, 2019 10:05 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Meanwhile, the Old Vic has completed some renovations.
Yesterday we officially opened our building after nine months of renovations to double the number of loos and improve accessibility.
When you come to visit us you might notice something a little different about our new loos. First, there are double the number – 44 loos within the building.
Our loos now offer ‘self-selection’ rather than being labelled male or female. This takes a descriptive, rather than prescriptive, approach following advice from surveys conducted with focus groups.
Uh oh…
When you arrive in the theatre, you will see labels signposting which blocks contain cubicles and which contain urinals. We also have one specifically designed gender neutral loo.
So men will be … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Oct 2nd, 2019 9:20 am |
By Ophelia Benson
He mad.
The Do Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSHIT, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016, 223-306. Get a better candidate this time, you’ll need it!
… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
2 comments
Oct 2nd, 2019 9:14 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The Guardian Live on Pompeo’s belated admission that he was on that phone call:
Some more context on Secretary Pompeo’s admission that he took part in the July phone call between Donald Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Pompeo’s involvement in the call (he listened in to the conversation and does not appear to have actively participated) was first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week. Pompeo’s admission, made earlier today on an official trip to the Vatican, confirms this reporting.
Although Pompeo has sought to downplay the relevance of his participation, describing it as part of normal state department business, that explanation only takes you so far.
Aside from the substance of the call, which involved Trump
…
Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: Pompeo
Oct 2nd, 2019 8:20 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Aw yeah.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 35m
Now the press is trying to sell the fact that I wanted a Moot stuffed with alligators and snakes, with an electrified fence and sharp spikes on top, at our Southern Border. I may be tough on Border Security, but not that tough. The press has gone Crazy. Fake News!
You watch: moots stuffed with alligators and snakes are going to be the next big thing.… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
17 comments
Oct 1st, 2019 5:27 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
One more item before I run screaming into the night –
President Donald Trump suggested shooting migrants in the legs in order to slow them down after they crossed the southern border during a March meeting in which he called for a shut down of the entire US-Mexico border, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Citing interviews with more than a dozen White House and administration officials directly involved, the Times — in an excerpt from the book “Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration” — reported that Trump had moved on from the idea by the end of what the Times described as a “frenzied week of presidential rages.” But he had also pivoted to removing staff who had
…
Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
8 comments
Tags: Genocidal Trump, Trump
Oct 1st, 2019 4:49 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Trump rant-lying again.
As I learn more and more each day, I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the….
…People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!
He will start a civil war if he can. This is an effort in that direction.
… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
9 comments
Tags: President Sedition, Trump
Oct 1st, 2019 4:24 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
In fact, according to Scott Stedman of Forensic News Net…
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: I’m told that Pompeo’s office in recent days asked State Department HR/IG if they could “discipline” officers for “failure to follow direction” if they cooperate with Congress.
This, I’m told, is PART of the IG’s urgent request to Congress.
New request, or the one we learned about last week? I’m guessing the latter but was Pompeo threatening people before the news broke? I don’t know.
There is written documentation.
State Department staffers were truly shocked by the directive, which the IG denied. It appears that Pompeo is threatening his officers if they comply with Congressional inquiries.
The IG denied Pompeo’s request? Or the IG denied the staffers … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
5 comments