Support NeoGAF

[whyamihere]

"wall must be dtf"

 

[AlphaDump]

Man, he sounds desperate to contact Trump before tomorrow.

Gee I wonder why

I can't figure it out at all... really bizarre timing....

 

[HanShotFirst]

So, what's the over under on tomorrow Trump being found tremendously innocent and that he bigly did nothing wrong?

 

[Bonen no Max'd]

"wall must be dtf"

We'd be an international laughing stock if our gigantic wall to keep out the dirty browns wasn't absolutely beautiful.

 

[B-Dubs]

We'd be an international laughing stock if our gigantic wall to keep out the dirty browns wasn't absolutely beautiful.

The wall has to make up not only for Trump tiny tiny penis, but the love he was never given by his father or the Manhattan elite. It also has to make up for the love he never gave his children or is unable to give Melania.

 

[Tommy DJ]

No, that's just how Grassley tweets

The "assume deer dead" one is still my favorite

The "I now h v an iphone" just makes me crack up every single time because its exactly how my mum sends messages to me, right down to the extra spaces.

 

[Diablos]

yep one of the only republicans briefed by Comey leading into tomorrow's public hearing and grassley suddenly wants to talk H1B visas the night before? Asking the president to call him directly on twitter?
Edit: If not you, your homeland security secretary. H1Bs that important on a Sunday night. Oh also I have a former staffer friendly in the department you or the secretary can talk to me I will give you her name.
Edit 2: this looks sketch as fuck :/

Why the fuck is he doing this on a Sunday night

 

[B-Dubs]

Why the fuck is he doing this on a Sunday night

If I didn't know any better I'd say he was looking for a bribe of sorts. Trump moves on his issue, he tries to kill the Russia hearings.

 

[Bonen no Max'd]

The wall has to make up not only for Trump tiny tiny penis, but the love he was never given by his father or the Manhattan elite. It also has to make up for the love he never gave his children or is unable to give Melania.

Uh excuse me, I have it from a tremendously good source that he has a big beautiful dick that matches his big beautiful hands.

 

[BoboBrazil]

yep one of the only republicans briefed by Comey leading into tomorrow's public hearing and grassley suddenly wants to talk H1B visas the night before? Asking the president to call him directly on twitter?
Edit: If not you, your homeland security secretary. H1Bs that important on a Sunday night. Oh also I have a former staffer friendly in the department you or the secretary can talk to me I will give you her name.
Edit 2: this looks sketch as fuck :/

Suspicious as fuck. Fuck this dude.

 

[Diablos]

If I didn't know any better I'd say he was looking for a bribe of sorts. Trump moves on his issue, he tries to kill the Russia hearings.

Eh. Or maybe he knows Comey doesn't have anything on Trump and his tweet is a signal for him to relax and focus on being a President

 

[sc0la]

Eh. Or maybe he knows Comey doesn't have anything on Trump and his tweet is a signal for him to relax and focus on being a President

Trump will never be able to "focus" on being president because his attention span is comparable to a gnat's.

 

[Chumley]

My main reason for believing Comey has nothing tomorrow is that if he did, far crazier shit would be happening right now.

 

[Diablos]

Trump will never be able to "focus" on being president because his attention span is comparable to a ghats.

Perhaps but I think this potentially implies more than anything that Trump is in the clear and Grassley is so over this and wanting to work on something new

 

[pigeon]

Wait what

Guys, Grassley cares a lot about H1B and tweets erratically. He's been tweeting at Trump about H1B for weeks.

I don't think that Trump is going to get off scot-free tomorrow -- at the very least Comey will rip him for the wiretapping tweets -- but this is not a sign of something. If Grassley really needed to talk to Trump about secret Russia investigation stuff he would probably send an aide to walk over there, cmon, they're like a block apart.

 

[sc0la]

Wait what

Guys, Grassley cares a lot about H1B and tweets erratically. He's been tweeting at Trump about H1B for weeks.

I don't think that Trump is going to get off scot-free tomorrow -- at the very least Comey will rip him for the wiretapping tweets -- but this is not a sign of something. If Grassley really needed to talk to Trump about secret Russia investigation stuff he would probably send an aide to walk over there, cmon, they're like a block apart.

It's Christmas Eve, let us pretend Santa is real until tomorrow when Comey gives everyone sweaters.

 

[LostMyNarbles]

Not going to get excited about the conference tomorrow. I feel like if anything major were coming it would have already been announced since some people have already been briefed. Sadly I feel like this is just going to be a public hearing stating there's no evidence of anything (Despite the fact that there is) and his administration is clear.

 

[sphagnum]

lol Trump appointed actual political commissars and everyone's sick of it

The political appointee charged with keeping watch over Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and his aides has offered unsolicited advice so often that after just four weeks on the job, Pruitt has shut him out of many staff meetings, according to two senior administration officials.

At the Pentagon, they’re privately calling the former Marine officer and fighter pilot who’s supposed to keep his eye on Defense Secretary Jim Mattis “the commissar,” according to a high-ranking defense official with knowledge of the situation. It’s a reference to Soviet-era Communist Party officials who were assigned to military units to ensure their commanders remained loyal.

Most members of President Trump’s Cabinet do not yet have leadership teams in place or even nominees for top deputies. But they do have an influential coterie of senior aides installed by the White House who are charged — above all — with monitoring the secretaries’ loyalty, according to eight officials in and outside the administration.

This shadow government of political appointees with the title of senior White House adviser is embedded at every Cabinet agency, with offices in or just outside the secretary’s suite. The White House has installed at least 16 of the advisers at departments including Energy and Health and Human Services and at some smaller agencies such as NASA, according to records first obtained by ProPublica through a Freedom of Information Act request.

These aides report not to the secretary, but to the Office of Cabinet Affairs, which is overseen by Rick Dearborn, a White House deputy chief of staff, according to administration officials. A top Dearborn aide, John Mashburn, leads a weekly conference call with the advisers, who are in constant contact with the White House.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powe...0f9bdd74ed1_story.html?utm_term=.1df735faf491

 

[Wilsongt]

Randy Rainbow -- Microwaves are Watching You

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas

 

[Bonen no Max'd]

Why would he even need to try and keep Pruitt loyal? Mattis I get at least, but where in Trump's agenda is Pruitt not completely on board?

 

[sc0la]

Why would he even need to try and keep Pruitt loyal? Mattis I get at least, but where in Trump's agenda is Pruitt not completely on board?

When all you care about is loyalty above all everyone is suspicious. Especially those outside your circle even if they are on your team.

 

[sphagnum]

Let's see if Trump picks up on the Infowars story by Jerome Corsi that an NSA whistle-blower provided some guy who worked with Joe Arpaio info from a database showing that both the Bush and Obama admins spied on Trump.

 

[Bam Bam Baklava]

I don't know what people expect from a public hearing.

 

[Chumley]

Exoneration seems to be off the table.

Worst case scenario is he says literally nothing.

 

[Bam Bam Baklava]

I also don't know why people bother listening to Rick Wilson anymore.

 

[Chumley]

I also don't know why people bother listening to Rick Wilson anymore.

Remind me when he's actually been wrong about anything.

He teased the dossier but never said when it would drop, which apparently people hold against him for some reason.

 

[Teggy]

Says he has no idea what will be said.

Proceeds to say something that can only be said if one knows something about what will be said.

Huh?

 

[MetalGearZed]

What do you guys expect from the Gorsuch hearings tomorrow(or whatever they're doing with that)?
I expect Dems across the board to obstruct the hell out of it. Fuck McConnell for that Garland shit. now and forever.

Obama extended so many olive branches to the GOP over the years and they do one of the dirtiest things in the history of American politics.
The GOP takes olive branches and fuck you up the ass with them eveytime.

 

[pigeon]

Lawfare makes the interesting point that the importance of the ongoing Russia investigation is probably inversely proportional to the amount of drama Comey makes tomorrow.

https://lawfareblog.com/how-listen-jim-comeys-testimony-monday

That is, if Comey says a lot, makes a lot of news on Russia matters, and cheers a lot of anti-Trump hearts by maximally embarassing the President for his outrageous comments on Obama's alleged wiretapping of Trump Tower, that will very likely be a sign that Comey has relatively little to protect in terms of investigative equities in the Russia matter and is thus free to vent. Conversely, a quiet, reserved Comey—one whose contrast with the relatively loquatious FBI director who talked at length about the Clinton email matters will infuriate a lot of liberals and frustrate those who want to know what's going on with Russia—may well spell trouble for the President.

To understand this perhaps paradoxical-sounding read, consider three possible scenarios.

In the first, the Russia investigation is either mostly complete, does not implicate the President in any significant way, or is a bust altogether...Comey is reportedly irate about Trump's wiretapping allegations, which don't merely defame the prior president but implicate the FBI in illegal activity. In this scenario, there's no particular reason for Comey not to tell his whole story and give vent to his anger. If this scenario is the reality, the template for Comey's testimomy will be his famous interaction with Sen. Schumer in 2007 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he spilled the beans on the 2004 hospital room confrontation over the Terrorist Surveillance Program....

In the third scenario, Russia is a very big deal. Comey, in other words, has significant investigative equities to protect and he believes that he needs to be there in order to protect them—in other words, that he has a responsibility to not get himself fired because of his anger about the Trump tweets (or anything else) because he has to make sure the investigation can proceed unimpeded. In this situation, I would expect him to be minimally verbal. He may have to answer yes or no questions in certain instances, including about the truth of the wiretapping allegations, but he will refuse to answer a lot of questions. He will make as little news as humanly possible. He will be exceptionally spare with his opinions. He will make a point of not antagonizing the President. Lots of people will leave disappointed.

If I were advising Trump, this is the scenario that would scare me most. We know, both from the hospital room testimony and from the Clinton email testimony, how Comey behaves when he feels at liberty to speak. We also know he's angry right now and would presumably love a chance to defend the integrity of his agency and his agents. If he passes up that opportunity, I will read that as a sign that he is biting his lip very hard because there's something more important at stake.

 

[Chumley]

Says he has no idea what will be said.

Proceeds to say something that can only be said if one knows something about what will be said.

Huh?

It's a cute way of saying he knows what won't be said.

To remain a hero to Trump's people, Comey has to shut down the investigation full stop. Anything between "no comment" and "the investigation is ongoing" will not please them.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Lawfare makes the interesting point that the importance of the ongoing Russia investigation is probably inversely proportional to the amount of drama Comey makes tomorrow.

https://lawfareblog.com/how-listen-jim-comeys-testimony-monday

Yup. If there is anything to this, tomorrow is going to be a hearing with a few super subtle clues and not much else. I'm most interested in the posturing from the various committee members. Everyone in the room is going to be playing a metagame because of the limitations that Comey is under.

 

[royalan]

Call it tin foil hat if you want, but I completely believe that Russia having blackmail material on key members of the RNC explains why guys like Cruz suddenly flipped and became zealots.

I mean, we KNOW Russia hacked both the DNC and the RNC. But while Preibus says the RNC wasn't successfully hacked, it's way too much for me to believe that Russia was able to hack the Democrats so thoroughly, but get nothing out of Republicans. I never believed that for a second. It just never made sense that anti-science, anti-tech Republicans would have world class cyber security protocols and training in place.

No, Russia got something on them too.

 

[Bonen no Max'd]

Call it tin foil hat if you want, but I completely believe that Russia having blackmail material on key members of the RNC explains why guys like Cruz suddenly flipped and became zealots.

I mean, we KNOW Russia hacked both the DNC and the RNC. It's too much for me to believe that Russia was able to hack the Democrats so thoroughly, but get nothing out of Republicans. I never believed that for a second.

Counter theory: Cruz decided that saving his political career and/or causing more misery for gay/black/poor people was more valuable than trying to oppose Trump.

 

[royalan]

Counter theory: Cruz decided that saving his political career and/or causing more misery for gay/black/poor people was more valuable than trying to oppose Trump.

But not even that explains why he's been so enthusiastically in Trump's corner until recently. It also doesn't explain other Republicans. At least for me.

I mean, Cruz knew what kind of man Trump was when he got on stage at the convention and told everyone to vote their conscience. And he pulled his 180 BEFORE Trump won.

 

[whyamihere]

Literally all of Tammy Baldwin's emails are about Sheriff Clarke running in 2018.

I wonder if she really think he'll do it or it's a fundraising opportunity.

 

[B-Dubs]

Call it tin foil hat if you want, but I completely believe that Russia having blackmail material on key members of the RNC explains why guys like Cruz suddenly flipped and became zealots.

I mean, we KNOW Russia hacked both the DNC and the RNC. But while Preibus says the RNC wasn't successfully hacked, it's way too much for me to believe that Russia was able to hack the Democrats so thoroughly, but get nothing out of Republicans. I never believed that for a second. It just never made sense that anti-science, anti-tech Republicans would have world class cyber security protocols and training in place.

No, Russia got something on them too.

According to the reporting the RNC didn't have world class security protocols, they literally just got lucky that the Russians targeted a guy who didn't work there anymore.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Literally all of Tammy Baldwin's emails are about Sheriff Clarke running in 2018.

I wonder if she really think he'll do it or it's a fundraising opportunity.

Not that this can't backfire (eg Trump) but Clarke as the GOP nominee would be such a boon for Baldwin's odds. It'd be one step above nominating Alan Keyes. Hope he takes the plunge.

Like I'm worried about Baldwin and Brown, but if their opponents are Clarke and Mandel, lol, good fucking luck.

(Now watch Walker and Kasich parachute in, although I know Walker seems to be going for a third term)

 

[BlastProcessing]

But not even that explains why he's been so enthusiastically in Trump's corner until recently. It also doesn't explain other Republicans. At least for me.

I mean, Cruz knew what kind of man Trump was when he got on stage at the convention and told everyone to vote their conscience. And he pulled his 180 BEFORE Trump won.

There are plenty of people in Washington who could have leaned on Cruz. It doesn't need to be the Russians. It could have been McConnell or (and I think this is the most likely) his large donors who forced him to pull that 180. If someone threatened to primary his ass in 2018 with Rick Perry he would have snapped in line pretty quick.

 

[royalan]

There are plenty of people in Washington who could have leaned on Cruz. It doesn't need to be the Russians. It could have been McConnell or (and I think this is the most likely) his large donors who forced him to pull that 180. If someone threatened to primary his ass in 2018 with Rick Perry he would have snapped in line pretty quick.

We'll see.

But I'll keep my tin foil hat. It's pretty snug.

 

[Bonen no Max'd]

Not that this can't backfire (eg Trump) but Clarke as the GOP nominee would be such a boon for Baldwin's odds. It'd be one step above nominating Alan Keyes. Hope he takes the plunge.

Like I'm worried about Baldwin and Brown, but if their opponents are Clarke and Mandel, lol, good fucking luck.

(Now watch Walker and Kasich parachute in, although I know Walker seems to be going for a third term)

In addition to those reports about the Ohio GOP trying to punish him for not supporting Trump, I really think Kasich is planning to primary Trump in 2020. That book he's coming out with seals the deal for me, especially since I think his original plan was to try and win the nomination in 2020 off of "I'm electable, unlike those other losers we keep running." I don't think running for Brown's seat is a good way to do that either, it's not like he needs extra experience and it would take away from his time to prep for the 2020 primary. I hope I'm right because I want President Brown in 2020 and Kasich for Senate is a big threat to that but I guess we'll see.

 

[thepotatoman]

Literally all of Tammy Baldwin's emails are about Sheriff Clarke running in 2018.

I wonder if she really think he'll do it or it's a fundraising opportunity.

The McCaskill strategy.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/todd-akin-missouri-claire-mccaskill-2012-121262

 

[rokkerkory]

I bet nothing much will come out of tomorrow other than we know russians meddled, no wire tapping claims, and trump + putin love investigation still on going.

In essence, wait for season 2 folks.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

Your mistake is assuming that Cruz/Republicans have a moral core; they don't care about anyone or anything other than money/power. How they look at their wives and daughters with a straight face is beyond me, let alone the national security implications of this whole shitshow.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

You lot are going to be disappointed if you expect some new big thing tomorrow from the hearing.

 

[Dan]

I mean, Cruz knew what kind of man Trump was when he got on stage at the convention and told everyone to vote their conscience. And he pulled his 180 BEFORE Trump won.

I think that's as simple as Cruz receiving complaints from constituents and seeing polling data that not fully backing the GOP nominee was bad for him.

 

[pigeon]

But not even that explains why he's been so enthusiastically in Trump's corner until recently. It also doesn't explain other Republicans. At least for me.

I mean, Cruz knew what kind of man Trump was when he got on stage at the convention and told everyone to vote their conscience. And he pulled his 180 BEFORE Trump won.

Because he started getting backblast from his funders immediately. Remember, he got thrown out of Adelson's suite that evening.

I don't think you need to assume anything special. Cruz discovered that he's vulnerable, and he's always acted the way he did because he's never been vulnerable before. This is how he acts when he's actually vulnerable -- just as disgusting as always, except pusillanimous instead of arrogant.

 

[sazzy]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-was-just-canceled-amid-fears-of-an-ice-raid/

 

[cartoon_soldier]

I think that's as simple as Cruz receiving complaints from constituents and seeing polling data that not fully backing the GOP nominee was bad for him.

And Trump pulling even with Clinton because her campaign decided to go on a 1 month fundraising break after the convention. Stupid decision.

 

[chadskin]

@realDonaldTrump:
James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence Potus colluded with Russia. This story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!

More confirmation it's true then.

 

[Plinko]

@realDonaldTrump:
James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence Potus colluded with Russia. This story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!

More confirmation it's true then.

He referred to "Potus" in the third person?