Month: November 2024

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Donald Trump

Trump Taking Calls From ‘Unknown Foreign Numbers’ As He Picks Cabinet Nominees

From his home at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump continues to pick one controversial (and potentially unconfirmable) person after another for his cabinet, using up the dwindling political capital he earned by defeating Vice President Kamala Harris less than two weeks ago.

First, Fox host Pete Hegseth was nominated for Secretary of Defense. Then came Matt Gaetz for Attorney General of the United States. It now appears neither has a chance of gaining Senate approval.

As Trump makes those picks, he’s also having numerous phone conversations with people who have “foreign numbers,” according to a disturbing report from the New York Times.

“Even with the differences since 2016, all signs so far indicate that the 78-year-old president-elect is sticking to some of his old habits. It sometimes seems to his staff as if half the world now has Mr. Trump’s cellphone number. Even since becoming the president-elect, he still seems willing to take every call — even calls from unknown foreign numbers.”

Where are those calls coming from? Russia? China? North Korea? No one knows, but the very idea that a president-elect might be seeking guidance from foreign nations on his appointees should worry every American, even those who voted for Trump.

And when he isn’t on the phone or regaling guests with tales of how he managed to win the 2024 election, Trump is also playing disc jockey.

“He has been spotted in the tearoom beneath the gold-canopied roof, or out on the Mar-a-Lago patio, picking out music on his iPad and blasting Pavarotti.”

In other words, Donald is more unhinged than ever, and he doesn’t even care if we all know that he could be talking about staffing moves with Vladimir Putin or Orbán, potentially selling out the United States to whatever dictator is willing to offer him the biggest financial reward.

Categories
Donald Trump The Trump Adminstration

Trump Refusing To Let FBI Do Background Checks On Cabinet Nominees

Failed former president Donald Trump is refusing to let the FBI do background checks or vetting on some of the people he has nominated for top jobs in his new administration.

According to CNN, Trump is instead using private companies to do background checks, but it’s unclear if those companies are capable of such a job.

“Trump and his allies believe the FBI system is slow and plagued with issues that could stymie the president-elect’s plan to quickly begin the work of implementing his agenda, people briefed on the plans said. Critics say the intrusive background checks sometimes turn up embarrassing information used to inflict political damage.”

“The discussions come as Trump has floated several controversial choices for high-level positions in the US government – including Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.”

Gaetz and Gabbard could never pass an FBI check because both have questionable backgrounds that include alleged illegal activity and connections to nations hostile to the United States, including Russia.

 

“Gaetz has been mired for years in Justice Department and House ethics investigations related to sex trafficking. The Justice Department declined to charge Gaetz, and the House ethics probe, days away from being completed, was effectively ended when the Florida congressman resigned from his seat this week. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.”

“Gabbard, meanwhile, has frequently appeared to take positions more favorable to foreign leaders widely considered not just American adversaries but, in some cases, brutal dictators, including the presidents of Syria and Russia, raising questions from allies and critics alike.”

The CNN report set has set off alarm bells for some in Congress, including Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who remarked, “This is an alarming step that, frankly, should alarm every American citizen who wants the basic function of government to work, who wants to ensure that the FBI, as you were reporting earlier, is able to investigate terrorist threats,” she said. “The fact that they would avoid a traditional background check process to me means they know they can’t pass it, and what it means is that information that would be available to the FBI just won’t even be considered.”

Categories
GOP Justice Department

Conservative Unloads On Nomination Of ‘Vile Sex Pest’ Matt Gaetz To Head DOJ: ‘He Is Abhorrent’

The nomination of former Florida GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz to be the next Attorney General of the United States has drawn plenty of criticism from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, leading to questions about whether or not Gaetz can ever be confirmed.

And now you can add to that skepticism the words of conservative journalist Ben Domenech, who expressed his disgust in a post on Substack, calling Gaetz a “piece of shit.”

The title of Domenech’s post, it should be noted is, “Matt Gaetz is a Vile Sex Pest and Any Senator Who Votes For Him Owns That.”

“Matt Gaetz is a sex trafficking drug addicted piece of shit,” the takedown begins.

“He is abhorrent,” Domenech adds. “His eyes are permanently rimmed with the red rings of chemical boosters. In person, he smells like overexposed Axe Body Spray and stale Astroglide.”

Damn! Tell us how you really feel, Ben!

There’s also this from Domenech: “Every Republican in Washington has an opinion about Matt Gaetz, and 99 percent of those opinions are ‘Keep Matt Gaetz away from my wife/daughter/friend and anyone I care about.'”

Senate Republicans have to reject Gaetz or face dire consequences, the post concludes.

″But if they have a degree of independence, any kind of free thought, mindful of the fact that a presidency is four years but your career is forever, they will reject this choice so emphatically that it sends a very simple, straightforward message: you can be an absolute dirtbag wannabe pimp pounding dick pills and caffeine while you film your ‘girlfriend’ twerking on the gram, or you can be a Republican.”

On Thursday, Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress, days before a report from the House Ethics Committee was to be released that allegedly details the Florida Republicans’ drug use and sexual encounters with underage girls, according to MSNBC.

The timing of his resignation could prove to be quite convenient for the scandal-plagued congressman. Punchbowl reported Wednesday, citing multiple sources familiar with the Ethics Committee’s Gaetz investigation, that the panel was set to vote this week on whether to release what Punchbowl sources described as a “highly damaging” report. The Washington Post confirmed Punchbowl’s reporting, citing four people familiar with the matter. 

Several Senate Republicans have already said publicly they will not vote to confirm Gaetz. And yet many of them have previously downplayed sexual abuse allegations and convictions against accused rapist/president-elect Donald Trump.

Why? Because the Republican Party is now composed of gutless sycophants who are only too happy to kiss whatever ass is presented to them for adoration.

At least most of the time.

Categories
Donald Trump Elon Musk GOP

Trump Tosses Elon Musk Under The Bus While Republicans Chuckle

On Wednesday, president-elect Donald Trump decided he’d let Twitter CEO Elon Musk know that he’s growing tired of his company, humiliating him in front of House Republicans during a conference.

Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC noted that Trump has a “twisted psyche” and has to “humiliate everyone around him to demonstrate his dominance over them.”

Trump told the GOP lawmakers, “Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him.”

“Everyone laughed,” O’Donnell noted. “They laughed that uncomfortable laugh. But they laugh when Donald Trump makes a joke about someone on his team, a joke that everyone knows is true, a joke that paints that person as pathetic, as Donald Trump’s personal sense of superiority demands that he do.”

Earlier this week, Trump announced that Musk would be the co-head of a new agency tasked with cutting bureaucratic waste in government.

That too is a slap in the face to Musk, O’Donnell added, because it’s a “fake” job with no actual power.

In other words, O’Donnell concluded, Trump is now officially “Elon’s daddy.”

Categories
Donald Trump Elections GOP

Trump’s Fragile Political Coalition ‘May Not Survive’ For Long – Here’s Why

 

According to some in the Republican Party, Donald Trump’s unexpected win last week and the gains made by the GOP suggest that a “political realignment” is underway in the country that will make their party a permanent majority.

However, according to political scientists John Judis and Ruy Teixeira, the coalition Trump assembled for his win is incredibly fragile and may not last long.

Writing in the New York Times, Judis and Teixeira warn that Trump’s new GOP has a “great potential for a crackup.”

“He might try to carry out his promise of deporting millions of illegal immigrants, a project that could not just wreak havoc among families and in communities but also cause economic chaos. Or take tariffs… Unlike most Republican initiatives, tariffs, if successful, work by imposing short-term costs in prices in order to achieve long-term gains in jobs from otherwise endangered industries. It’s the short-term costs — another round of inflation, this time imposed by Mr. Trump — that might endanger the Republican coalition.”

Additionally, they write, there’s the fact that Trump is an incredibly self-destructive and unstable person, which doesn’t exactly bode well when you’re trying to lead people.

“The final obstacle to a strong realignment is Mr. Trump himself, who is consumed with the quest for power and self-aggrandizement, and appears eager to seek revenge against his detractors. Many of his difficulties during his first term stemmed from his own misbehavior, and he continues to revel in division and divisiveness.”

“Trump’s dream of a historic Republican realignment may not survive his second term,” they conclude, and it’s hard to argue against such a prediction. After all, we’ve all seen how the twice-impeached president-elect causes chaos everywhere he goes.

Here’s a personal prediction: Within six months, the U.S. economy will be in a deep recession, Trump will be mired in personal scandal, and the GOP will be looking for a way to excuse his actions.

Check back in May and let’s see if I’m right.