;)
The Commentariat -- September 16, 2018
Afternoon Update:
** Emma Brown of the Washington Post interviews Christine Blasey Ford, a research psychologist affiliated with Stanford University, who says Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape her when they were in high school. She told no one the story in any detail until she discussed it with two therapists, beginning in 2012. Mrs. McC: Either Ford, whose professional name is Christine Blasey, is a loon or a drunken Brett Kavanaugh attacked her and would not release her. He's either lying about it now or he decided to "forget" the incident. You be the judge, because evidently the Judiciary Committee won't bother. New Rule? -- Attempted rape IOKIYAR? ...
... Update. Evidently So. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "However, Republicans on the committee planned on Sunday afternoon to move forward with a scheduled Thursday vote on the nomination, barring additional corroboration of Ms. Ford's account or the emergence of a new allegation." Mrs. McC: Excuse me? There's already plenty of corroboration: two therapists, the victim's husband & a lie-detector test.
... Mark Stern of Slate: "The Senate must pause the confirmation process and hold hearings -- fair hearings that heed the lessons of the Anita Hill disaster, during which senators downplayed Hill's alleged harassment and refused to hear from expert witnesses who could contextualize her experience.... The Senate Judiciary Committee's Republicans issued a statement on Sunday complaining about 'Democrats' tactics and motives,' implicitly questioning Ford's veracity. They appear predictably resistant to delaying the committee vote. It may thus fall on Collins and Murkowski to force their party to treat Ford with respect." ...
So, to summarize, a confessed serial sexual predator nominated a man who is credibly accused of attempted rape to be the key vote to strip women of reproductive freedom. -- Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress, in a tweet
... David Atkins of the Washington Monthly: "... a Supreme Court nomination isn't a criminal trial, and an explosive allegation of this nature should instantly derail the confirmation process of a being chosen to preside over the highest court in the country, one that will have enormous power over women's bodies and their fundamental rights. It seems like outrageous hyperbole, but we must confront the dystopian reality. A president credibly accused multiple sexually assaults and who bragged forcibly grabbing women by the genitals without their consent, who was helped into office by a large number of men in powerful media positions who have also been forced out their jobs due to allegations of sexual harassment and assault as well as by the clandestine government services of a nation famous for its misogynistic exploitation of women, is nominating an accused rapist to the Supreme Court with the express intent of eliminating women's right to an abortion and other reproductive health services." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Conservatives continue to treat [Clarence] Thomas as the innocent victim of a smear campaign, despite the voluminous evidence of his guilt that emerged after his confirmation. The most likely outcome is that Republicans would confirm a second probable perpetrator of sexual assault to the high court. On the other hand, it's not hard to imagine other possibilities.... It's perfectly obvious why Donald Trump would be eager to defend the principle that men must not have their careers derailed by accusations of sexual assault. It's less clear that 50 Republican senators will be eager to join him.... Republicans may not want spend the run-up to an election litigating an allegation that further defines their Trump-era identity as the party of unbridled male sexual entitlement. But at the moment, a question that appeared closed is suddenly very much open." ...
... "A Moral Abomination." digby: "I would just remind people who are thinking that Kavanaugh shouldn't be denied a place on the Supreme Court because of things he did in high school, that his professional life hasn't been exactly staid and upright either[.]... He isn't a learned jurist, he's a slash and burn right-wing activist. Drunken, privileged, rich boys are exactly the types they recruited for their dirty work during [the Clinton] period. And he's exactly the type the wingnut cabal that's propping up Trump to get the courts packed would put forth to ensure that their agenda is protected by any means necessary. He's a partisan hitman, not a judge.... He is a professional character assassin who is deeply morally compromised. His cruel and indecent behavior toward Vince Foster's family alone, despite knowing that it was wrong, disqualified him. This latest revelation just reinforces what we already know. He is a moral abomination who has no place on the court."
Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday fired his first salvo against special counsel Robert Mueller since former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort entered a plea deal with the Russia probe's federal prosecutors. 'While my (our) poll numbers are good, with the Economy being the best ever, if it weren't for the Rigged Russian Witch Hunt, they would be 25 points higher!' Trump tweeted. 'Highly conflicted Bob Mueller & the 17 Angry Democrats are using this Phony issue to hurt us in the Midterms. No Collusion!' Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani also broke his silence on Manafort's intended guilty plea earlier Saturday, alleging in a tweet that 'sources close to' Manafort's defense team told the former New York mayor that the cooperation agreement 'does not involve the Trump campaign' and that there was 'no collusion with Russia' from within the Trump campaign. Giuliani added: 'Another road travelled by Mueller. Same conclusion: no evidence of collusion President did nothing wrong.'" Mrs. McC: Nothing new here. ...
... Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel: The prosecution's exhibits in Paul Manafort's plea deal are "there to show what Paul Manafort does when he's running a campaign. Because they show that for the decade leading up to running Trump's campaign, Manafort was using the very same sleazy strategy to support Viktor Yanukovych that he used to get Trump elected. In other words, these exhibits are a preview of coming attractions.... The criminal information provided far more detail about something we had only seen snippets of in the Alex Van der Zwaan plea: Manafort's use of Skadden Arps to whitewash Yanukovych's prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko. It describes how Manafort used cut-outs to place stories claiming his client's female opponent had murdered someone.... And it shows Manafort seeding lies that his client's female opponent had criminal intent when he knew there was no proof to back the claim.... This propaganda effort against Manafort's client's female opponent included placing stories in Breitbart."
Ben Kamisar of NBC News: "FEMA Administrator Brock Long Sunday questioned the relevance of independent studies tying thousands of deaths to the aftermath of last September's hurricane in Puerto Rico, echoing ... Donald Trump's criticism of those findings as Florence continues to batter the Carolinas. Appearing on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Long defended the president for his response to Hurricane Maria last year and argued that findings from multiple academic studies were 'all over the place.' 'I think the president is being taken out of context there,' Long said. 'I mean, I talked to the president every day this week, and the secretary of homeland security, and we discuss what we're trying to do as a result of last year.' 'I don't know why the studies were done,' Long said when asked about Trump's claims that the study was 'done by Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: You might want to view Long's interview as part of his attempt to keep his job. ...
... "A Smooth Running Machine." William Wan & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "As the Federal Emergency Management Agency heads into peak hurricane season, an internal investigation has imperiled its top official, sparking a growing backlash within the agency where career officials and even some political appointees are worried there is no proven disaster manager on hand to replace him. FEMA Administrator William 'Brock' Long is said to be resisting an effort by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to replace him over his alleged misuse of government vehicles. The feud among senior Trump administration officials surfaced publicly in recent days as FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security raced to prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Florence. The prospect of Long's dismissal has alarmed current and former staff at FEMA and DHS, and it has captured the attention of officials on Capitol Hill, who note that the agency's No. 2 position has been vacant for nearly two years and that Trump's current nominee, Peter Gaynor, still awaits Senate confirmation. Trump's original nominee for the post, Daniel Craig, withdrew from consideration a year ago after reports surfaced that the DHS inspector general found he had falsified work and travel records while working for the George W. Bush administration."
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Sen. Lindsey Graham confirmed on Sunday 'there was a point in time' when he and ... Donald Trump seriously discussed pulling U.S. military dependents out of South Korea -- a move that would have been widely seen as a precursor to military action on the peninsula. The South Carolina Republican said that at the time, 'it looked like nothing was going to happen, there was no dialogue going' with North Korea about its nuclear program, adding that 'once you start moving dependents out of South Korea, that is a signal to everybody that we're running out of time.' Graham cautioned on CBS' 'Face the Nation' that 'we're not out of the woods yet when it comes to North Korea,' but he said the Trump administration's renewed diplomatic talks have de-escalated the situation and bought time for denuclearization to be achieved peacefully." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What could be more comforting than to know Senator War Hawk has the ear of President* Impulsive-Ignoramus?
Kate Williams of the Oregonian: "A deportation officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was arrested this week on multiple counts of sodomy, Oregon State Police said Saturday. Blake V. Northway, a 55-year-old Medford[, Oregon,] resident, was taken into custody Thursday, officials said, as the result of a joint investigation between the immigration agency and state police. He has been 'relieved of all authority,' state police said in a statement and will be put on leave until the investigation is complete. According to court documents, Northway is accused of sexually abusing an underage female relative between 2009 and 2013." ...
... "All the Best People," Ctd. Opheli Lawler of New York: "Alongside the suspected serial killer who worked for Border Patrol, agents at both government organizations [ICE & the Border Patrol] have been accused of beating and sexually assaulting detained migrants."
AP: "A Palestinian assailant on Sunday fatally stabbed an Israeli settler outside a busy mall in the West Bank. The victim was identified as Ari Fuld, a U.S.-born activist who was well-known in the local settler community and an outspoken Israel advocate on social media platforms."
*****
Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump has decided to impose tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, two people briefed on the decision said, one of the most severe economic restrictions ever imposed by a U.S. president. An announcement is expected to come within days, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss internal plans. The new tariffs would apply to more than 1,000 products, including refrigerators, air conditioners, furniture, televisions and toys. These penalties could drive up the cost of a range of products ahead of the holiday shopping season, though it's unclear how much."
Dennis Romero of NBC News: "... Donald Trump may soon be communicating with you directly.... Next Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will do its first test of a system that allows the president to send a message to most U.S. cellphones.... The test message will have a header that reads 'Presidential Alert,' according to the agency.... The wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system was authorized by Congress in 2015 under a law that states the 'system shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety.' Experts didn't appear to be too concerned that Trump, known to use his smartphone to blast opponents, berate subordinates and take shots at the news media on Twitter, could abuse WEA.... The test is supposed to take place at 2:18 p.m. EDT on Sept. 20. Under the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006, cellphone users cannot opt out of the presidential alerts."
When President Obama said that he has been to '57 States,' very little mention in Fake News Media. Can you imagine if I said that...story of the year! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Friday ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd like to point out that this is one of Trump's stupidest whines ever & shows the extent of his obsessive jealousy of President Obama. This was a one-time slip-of-the-tongue Obama made during a campaign stop in 2008. As Obama noted later, he meant to say 47, which was accurate. If Trump had made it, he would have insisted thereafter that there were 57 states. Suddenly Puerto Rico & Guam & the Virgin Island & whatever would become states. And he'd been to all of them.... It isn't a mistake Obama repeated, and it wasn't a lie. It's the sort of mistake we all make occasionally. Yet Trump is comparing his thousands of lies -- averaging more than eight a day recently - to one extemporaneous goof Obama made 10 years ago. Pathetic. (BTW, the responses to Trump's tweet are great.) ...
... Christopher Cadelago of Politico has a nice summary of Trump's week that was: "... Donald Trump spent Friday confronting the deadly landfall of Hurricane Florence -- only to have that disaster eclipsed by the revelation that his former campaign manager cut a cooperation deal with special counsel Robert Mueller and that a growing #MeToo crisis is surrounding his Supreme Court nominee. The trifecta culminated a week of the president careening from one fiasco to another, before he had fully recovered from the publication of damning excerpts from Bob Woodward's new White House account 'Fear' and an op-ed published anonymously by The New York Times claiming that senior staff are working to undermine him."
"No Collusion." Ian Schwartz in Real Clear Politics: "In an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Friday, Bob Woodward said that in his two years of investigating for his new book, 'Fear,' he found no evidence of collusion or espionage between Trump and Russia. Woodward said he looked for it 'hard" and yet turned up nothing." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I could be wrong, but I suspect we'll find out there was a lot more "collusion" between the Trump campaign & foreign entities (not necessarily all Russian) than what occurred in a 30-minute meeting "about adoption." ...
... George Packer of the New Yorker reviews Woodward's book. "At Trump's core lies a need always to look strong, which, of course, makes him look weak. In several scenes, one adviser or another struggles to find the right, flattering words that will keep the President from starting a nuclear war." ...
... Jonathan Chait draws parallels between 1930s German politicians & today's Republicans. "What makes the history pertinent ... are the eerie similarities in the behavior of the right-wing politicians who facilitated both men's rise to power." German political leaders thought they could "contain" Hitler, too. BTW, if you think Gary Cohn might be some kind of hero for "containing" Trump, Packer & Chait will disabuse of that notion. He stayed for his tax break.
Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: To collect his millions, Paul Manafort set up shell companies with fake "directors": people whose identities had been stolen. One such person is Yevgeny G. Kaseyev, a Ukrainian hairdresser whose passport was stolen. "Mr. Kaseyev said he first became aware of his unwitting role in the creation of at least three Ukrainian front companies a decade ago, when the tax police contacted him in 2007 about his purported $30 million tax liability...."
Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "Interviews with more than a dozen White House, congressional and current and former Defense Department officials over the past six weeks paint a portrait of a president who has soured on his defense secretary, weary of unfavorable comparisons to [Jim] Mattis as the adult in the room, and increasingly concerned that he is a Democrat at heart.... Over the last four months alone, the president and the defense chief have found themselves at odds over NATO policy, whether to resume large-scale military exercises with South Korea and, privately, whether Mr. Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear deal has proved effective.... Mr. Mattis himself is becoming weary, some aides said, of the amount of time spent pushing back against what Defense Department officials think are capricious whims of an erratic president." ...
... OR, as Benjamin Hart (or his headline writer) of New York puts it, "Mattis not enough of a suck-up for Trump; may be on the way out."
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Here's something I didn't know: "Using his folksy manner, Mr. Mattis talked the president out of ordering torture against terrorism detainees...."
Nahal Toosi, et al., of Politico: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his predecessor John Kerry clashed Friday over the latter's private meetings with Iranian officials, a remarkable war of words that had both sides accusing the other of dishonesty. Pompeo alleged that, by holding 'beyond inappropriate' meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Kerry was undermining U.S. foreign policy in an 'unprecedented' manner. The secretary's comments came after ... Donald Trump asserted in a tweet that Kerry's meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif were 'illegal.' Kerry and his aides dismissed such allegations as utter bunk, pointing out that Kerry had briefed Pompeo and the State Department about his discussions with Zarif. Kerry twisted the knife even more on Twitter by raising Trump's legal woes, saying the president should 'be more worried about Paul Manafort meeting with Robert Mueller than me meeting with Iran's [foreign minister].'"
** That guy Mark Judge who vouched for Brett Kavanaugh? His credibility is great! And an all-around perfect character witness. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: Judge is a "conservative" writer who wrote an "addiction memoir" titled Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk. "That book chronicles Judge's time as a teenage alcoholic. Like many works of the genre, it devotes a lot of ink to the kinds of debauchery that leads to AA and recovery. While there's nothing in the book that resembles the incident reportedly described in the private letter given to the FBI, Judge says his own black-out drinking while he and Kavanaugh were Georgetown Prep students 'reached the point where once I had the first beer, I found it impossible to stop until I was completely annihilated.'... The amount of drinking Judge describes himself undertaking might suggest that his memory of those days may not be entirely reliable." Mencimer copies a compelling excerpt about Bart O'Kavanaugh. Name totally changed to protect the guilty. ...
... Heidi Bond, who clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski, in Slate: "For years, Kozinski maintained an email list known as the 'Easy Rider Gag List,' to which he would send sexually explicit and otherwise raunchy jokes; the existence of the list was first publicized in 2008.... Kozinski exposed us to this sort of material almost every day.... In his hearings, Kavanaugh was asked by Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mazie Hirono if he was aware of the email list, and if he had received emails from Kozinski with sexually explicit content.... [Kavanagh] said he couldn't recall anything like that. And, in response to a written question for the record -- 'Has Judge Kozinski ever made comments about sexual matters to you, either in jest or otherwise?' -- Kavanaugh responded, 'I do not remember any such comments.'... I do not know how it would be possible to forget something as pervasive as Kozinski's famously sexual sense of humor or his gag list, as Kavanaugh has professed to in his hearings...." Kavanaugh remained close to Kozinski for years after his clerkship ended.
Juan Lozano of the AP: "A U.S. Border Patrol agent suspected of killing four women was arrested early Saturday after a fifth woman who had been abducted managed to escape from him and notify authorities, law enforcement officials said, describing the agent as a 'serial killer.' Juan David Ortiz, 35, an intel supervisor for the Border Patrol, fled from state troopers and was found hiding in a truck in a hotel parking lot in Laredo at around 2 a.m. Saturday, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said at a news conference in the border city about 145 miles (235 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio."
Dennis Romero and Dystany Muse of NBC News: "A member of a U.S. Coast Guard team responding to Tropical Storm Florence in South Carolina appeared to flash a white power hand gesture in the background as a captain was being interviewed Friday by MSNBC. The man has since been removed from the Florence response operations and the incident is under investigation, said Coast Guard Lt. J.B. Zorn. The decision from the federal agency came after heavy backlash online to the apparent gesture captured on 'Live with Ali Velshi.'"
Election 2018
Obama Converts Wealthy Ohio Republican. Justin Wise of the Hill: "The wealthiest supporter of the GOP in Ohio said Thursday that he is no longer a member of the Republican Party. 'I just decided I'm no longer a Republican,' L Brands CEO Leslie Wexner said during a panel discussion at a leadership summit, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Wexner, who said he's been a Republican since college, added that he is now an independent, before saying that he 'won't support this nonsense in the Republican Party' anymore.... The development came just a day after former President Obama slammed GOP lawmakers during a rally in Ohio for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray.... Wexner called Obama's visit to Ohio this week a 'great moment for the community,' according to the Dispatch. 'I was struck by the genuineness of the man; his candor, humility and empathy for others,' Wexner said. The newspaper noted that the comments stand in stark contrast to what the GOP supporter has said about President Trump. The billionaire CEO reportedly said in a speech last year that he was 'ashamed' by Trump's response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.... The Ohio businessman has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and groups over the years...." (To read the original story in the Columbus Dispatch, you have to sign up.)
Beyond the Beltway
Texas Board Determined to Prove Value of Pointy-Headed Experts. Lauren McGaughy of the Dallas Morning News: "As part of an effort to 'streamline' the social studies curriculum in public schools, the State Board of Education voted Friday to adjust what students in every grade are required to learn in the classroom. Among the changes, board members approved the removal of several historical figures, including [Hillary] Clinton and [Helen] Keller, from the curriculum. The board also voted to keep in the curriculum a reference to the 'heroism' of the defenders of the Alamo, which had been recommended for elimination, as well as Moses' influence on the writing of the nation's founding documents, multiple references to 'Judeo-Christian' values and a requirement that students explain how the 'Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict' in the Middle East. The vote Friday was preliminary. The board can amend the curriculum changes further before taking a final vote in November." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Though you may think I make up this stuff to drive you nuts, the only fictional thing in the report, as far as I know, is the Biblical character Moses.
News Ledes
Raleigh News & Observer: "At least 14 people have died in North and South Carolina as a result of Florence, now a slow-moving tropical depression that continues to pound the states with heavy rains and catastrophic flooding. The storm has increased its speed and is now moving at 8 mph across eastern South Carolina, the National Hurricane Center reported in its 5 a.m. update. The center of the storm is about 20 miles southeast of Columbia, S.C. It weakened from a tropical storm to a tropical depression early Sunday morning after the NHC reported maximum sustained speeds of 35 mph. The storm is expected to move across western North and South Carolina on Sunday and then 'recurve over the Ohio Valley and Northeast U.S. Monday and Tuesday,' according to the Hurricane Center." Nearly a million customers are without power. ...
... New York Times Update: "Even as the storm both lost some of its power and sped up, leaving less time for its steady rains to saturate the places in its path, the death toll increased to at least 14, and rivers were rising fast. Forecasters warned that flooding, already \ frighteningly common this weekend, was virtually certain to worsen within hours."
... The New York Times is providing free access to its Hurricane Florence coverage. The Times front page is here. "The [Washington] Post has removed article limits on coverage of Hurricane Florence to make these stories available without a subscription." The Post has links to several Florence-related stories on its front page. the (South Carolina) State home page is here. The State is granting free access to its site during the storm. The Raleigh News & Observer home page is here.
New York Times: "As Typhoon Mangkhut moved past Hong Kong and struck mainland China, the authorities in the Philippines said that landslides had buried at least two buildings where people were sheltering, sharply raising the death toll there as the extent of the damage was only beginning to become clear. The storm had weakened overnight but was still a severe typhoon, with gusts of up to 100 miles an hour, the Hong Kong authorities said. Buildings in that city swayed, trees were downed, windows shattered and hundreds of flights were canceled. On the Chinese mainland, the storm made landfall in densely populated areas in the late afternoon, including a major center of heavy industry. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated in Guangdong Province."
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Reader Comments (5)
All those responses to Trump's tweet re: Obama's misspeak about visiting 57 states are hilarious––and some not so. One of the tweets belong to George Conway whom I believe is the same G.C. that is married to our very own Kellyanne, our "sprinkle me with stardust, I am Sunkist and starry eyed" gal of a thousand words a minute. How on earth do they inhabit the same space? I find this very strange.
And Marie: We'd never blame you for driving us nuts having had that done to us years ago and case in point is that State Board of Education possible vote for changes in the social studies curriculum which appears to be Christian based bringing back that bearded brick of a guy, Moses, who from what I understand is pleased as punch that he has not been forgotten.* He does, however, resent being played by Charlton Heston, says he, Moses, is much better looking and his beard is better kept.
* Trump's mention of Frederick Douglas as though he was still with us, indicating he had no idea who Douglas was.
The biggest difference between Trump’s prodigious lying and Obama’s misspeak is that Obama, once he realized he had said “57 states”, acknowledged the mistake in his usual good natured fashion. When Trump lies or even makes a mistake there is no acknowledgment and no correction. Usually he or one his flunkies just deletes the tweet and pretends it never happened, or he’ll claim that he never said what everyone heard him say, OR he simply holds to it and demands that every other person in the world go along with his mistake/lie.
Stupid is one thing. Erroneous is another, and lying something else altogether. But stupid, mistaken, lying AND weak is what we really have.
Sad.
Another pertinent aspect of Trump’s whine about an Obama flub from ten years ago is the ever present cloud of extreme narcissism which surrounds the little dictator. In his mind, had he made a similar mistake it would automatically become the “story of the year”. Never mind wars, tragedy, natural disasters, killings, crime, human suffering. Trump misspoke. Story of the year.
I’ve got news for you, little donnie, you say shit like that all the time, sometimes five or six times a day and all except for the most outrageous (3,000 people dead is a lie to make me look bad) barely make it out of a single news cycle, they disappear like so many farts in the wind.
Un.Fit.
Our recorded breaking POTUS!!!!!
Number of staff convicted criminals - 5
Number of staff fired or resigned - 24
Number of lies per day - 8
Trump will be famous but when is it enough?
Ah! BeaMcCrab, you are ahead of me. Just about to add this:
I always like hearing from George Packer. Of course, we've all read much the same for months now, but seeing it, reading it once more offers reinforcement for what we already know.
Take a read at the New Yorker feature by George Packer: With “Fear” and Trump, Bob Woodward Has a Bookend to the Nixon Story "...can't get no respect"
"No one has any respect for Trump. In the course of the book, his chief of staff calls him “an idiot”; his Secretary of State ups it to “a fucking moron”; his Secretary of Defense compares him to an eleven-year-old; his top economic adviser and his personal lawyer consider him, respectively, “a professional liar” and “a fucking liar."
Uh huh!
And what's up with this White house?
Per Packer: "... Only snakes and sycophants survive."