It gets worse RE: FBI search

I think it means the GOP elite are well and truly done with the orange F-wad.
They have thrown him overboard.

But McConnell and the GOP oligarchs are popping Champaign corks as we speak.

Trump is disposable. He's a liability to the oligarchs now.
I'll be glad to see him gone, but his base is still there, and I'll bet good money that their loyalty is flexible. There's always DeSantis or Abbott. Or Batboy (Scott).

MAGA>>ULTRAMAGA

"DeSantis is God's Will" from the preachers.

Interesting, though, that people are suddenly floating the possibility of MD Gov Hogan running. The Return Of The Creature From The Black Chamber Of Commerce? Do the old-fashioned oligarchs want a new, stabler image?

Yes the GOP could no longer cover for Trump and didn't want to even make an effort anymore.

Yes DeSantis is up next.

Or as you point out perhaps one with a better image.

You are right, they are going to re-brand with perhaps a nicer sounding guy.
Someone people will like.

Kudos to Blue Owl who memed him as Batboy.

He's slick and smooth, with a proven track record of criming successfully. He doesn't have a lot of recent high-vis baggage. He's more ruthless than Hogan - a feature, not a bug. Seeing who gets the nod will tell us the strategy: good cop or bad cop. New image, or new MAGAt?

Smooth operation of biz, or outright fascism (also good for biz)?

It fits.
Weekly World News was my favorite paper. I have their last edition: "Buy today, eBay tomorrow!".
Though I favored Nessie and the alien over batboy.

Trump was very good at getting a cult following and bringing in votes.

But he was not a team player, he only worked for himself.
And he would destroy the GOP if they did not always do his bidding.

Plus he was scattered, unfocused and unpredictable.

So yes we know what the GOP is looking for.

They have to re-brand and I think they have to hide their fascism.
Maybe tone down the Nazi worship.

The guy has to be ruthless, totally focused on power and wealth, not just for himself but for the GOP elite and oligarchs.

The Batboy thing is scary accurate.

Yes your thinking is right on. We will know more as they roll out the heirs apparent for focus groups and auditions in the public.

They might go full on fascism and go with DeSantis.

We will see what the next step for them will be. I am sure McConnell has figured it out.
And we will know more as he unfolds his plans.

Typical CEO/upper management. No empathy to get in the way of profits. Able to charm people and imitate social graces.

Trump had the appeal of a tv personality to a generation(s) whose babysitter was the boob tube. I see a direct connection between the vacuous state of mind induced by tv and his base.

My theory: Reagan was the perfect movie-era president. A mediocre actor who was good at delivering scripted lines. The Silver Screen presidency: city on a hill, tear down that wall, and so on. Trump on the other hand was the ultimate tv presidency: everything was surface, only the gloss counted, who cared about any depth. TV infantilizes. Reality is surface deep, temporary and malleable. "Alternate facts". Xrist, he was a reality tv game show host.

Trump also has the corporate mindset: he had the top job, so he could call the shots, accountable to no one. So we have sociopathy plus tv.

What comes next? Might be a couple cycles away. The Meta presidency? The virtual White House? Zuck's world.

My thinking was heavily influenced by Marshal McLuhan and Desmond Morris (The Naked Ape etc.), I guess it shows.

Yes we can see the high functioning sociopaths who are CEOs and oligarchs, ruthless about profit, nothing else matters to them. Charming, cunning, can read the room and imitate social graces and pretend to be normal human beings.

Money is like an addiction, no amount of money is enough for them. I read an interesting study some time ago. The very wealthy were interviewed, and no matter how rich they were, they all stated they did not have enough money. If only they had X more dollars, they could finally rest and be content.
Not one of them were at peace with their vast wealth.

Yes good point. The current popular media drives our presidential selections.

People raised on reality TV would of course elect Trump as president.
And yes Reagan was the perfect silver screen movie era president.

If your theory holds true we should be looking for the next president to be a You Tube type star.

Trump is a ruthless sociopath and toxic narcissist. Basically a mob boss, ran a shady business operation and he was the brand.

I wish McLuhan could have lived long enough to see a reality TV star installed as president of the US.
The medium did become the message in a profound and disastrous way.

Yes I have also thought a lot about human behavior and evolution in the context of current political and geopolitical realities. Humans are hard wired for survival of the species which perhaps drives greed for power and resources. Which then ends the species by destroying mankind and the planet.

Who knows how many times humans have gone though this cycle?

I'd been thinking of the immersive so-called "metaverse" medium that is supposed to make Zuck another batch of billions, but you have a point. Frinstance:
I started following the antics of the Canadian "Convoy" and their occupation of Ottawa as a distraction from disasters. Then the US had its own little People's Convoy, populated by Proud Boys, J6ers, and other lowlife. Then that imploded, and the remnant became the "1776 Restoration Movment" for a "constitutional republic" (since mask/vax mandates were gone and they needed SOME excuse for rage). Led by a proud boy called Santa. That got really strange, it evolved into a bunch of morbidly obese people living in lawn chairs on the National Mall and sleeping in their cars there. Most of them were "live-streamers" with cameras on each other all the time. Then they got into conflict with DC leftists and old Reich wing enemies from the old Convoy, e.g., Defender Of Ants and Freedom Squirrel vs Storm Trooper 1791 and Oreo Express. Better than a pro wrestling tag team match. But the point is these people were constantly videoing each other live. Maybe that's the new medium: the live stream world. Reality tv squared.

Short note: McCluhan said "massage", choosing that word because the medium touches you. Content is secondary to the experience of the medium.

It can all be handled by Amazon, Facebook and Twitter.

I am just following your theory to its logical conclusion.

I don't know enough about Z's metaverse to make intelligent comments.

But don't we already live in a metaverse of sorts? An artificial virtual immersive world where humans are programmed what to think, feel and behave from birth to death? And we create our own real life avatars. Celebrities, royalty, and TV stars who become president. Humans have always been at the mercy of the wealthy and powerful who tell us what reality is in any given century.

Sure, why not. The metaverse creates another new metaverse, this time even more artificial than the last.

Yes I know, humans have evolved to this point where living one's life is no longer enough. People must video themselves living their lives, down to the most excruciating mundane detail and broadcast it for all to see. But it really isn't about someone eating a fish sandwich, the content is meaningless, it is the medium that is important. The point is to broadcast ourselves all over social media. We want to experience videotaping our lives and experience others watching us.

I guess you are right it is kind of a masturbatory massage.

that insulates us from heat, cold, thirst, hunger and danger. But our built environment has physical reality, even when we enhance it with media.

Zuckerthing's "metaverse", as I follow it, is an immersive virtual reality. Wear a helmet and tactile feedback clothes, and live in a "real" fantasy with no connection to the physical world. Not just visual and auditory senses like tv or music, but an interactive alternate reality.

I think the idea of "metaverse" derives from the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum physics, but dawg knows what Zuck thinks it means.

I'll stop while I'm still almost making sense (grin) .

We did great, considering it is late, I am tired and not making any sense whatsoever no doubt.

I have read about wearing a helmet and entering a fantasy world.
At some point do we lose any sense of what is real, what is fantasy?

As we are discussing we are doing that already.

A TV star who pretends to be a real president.
The GOP who pretends to love him, but really hates him and is throwing him under the bus.

My friend we all put on helmets a long time ago.

we might need another million years to witness what happens to the planet, for the next cycle

Lots of time for long cycles between human infestation, er I mean human habitation and demise.

I love your sense of humor. Absolutely perfect on this one ID

Mother Earth has had enough of our mistreating HER planet earth.
She is telling us BIG TIME, I'll show You, who is boss........

Of course the (r)s are pretty incompetent so maybe putie will send in his FSB/Chechen hit squads (who are also pretty incompetent.)

In any case agent (orange) needs to go. And probably all of his family and close cronies. (Do they grow blood oranges in FL?)

they fully realize that if Trump goes down, the Republican Party goes down FOREVER.

AND, the "Corporations of America" will be taking major hits also, definitely not replacing the" United States of America"

Along with the anihilation of "Citizens United", and a wholesale revision of the U.S.S.C right wing quasi-justices and the horses they rode in on..........

See the discussion above with orthoclad.

We are speculating about the next move to be made by McConnell and the GOP oligarchs.

They are going to have to find another sociopathic star but a team player this time.

DeSantis, (DeSatan for short), quite possibly even worse than Trump........

In the back of my mind, I have kept thinking that the Republican Party will ride in at the last minute and Claim some bullshit to Trumps Voters as a way to get them back. A simple, "we" are the heroes, "we" saw the problem, "we" took care of the problem, and "we" are back in control, vote for us and help US Make America Great Again............Trump did everything important, he just went off the rails and went Rogue on us. We will safeguard that that never happens again.......

Just watch..........They MUST win the 2022 at all costs. Just looking at their massive continued efforts to corrupt the election.
If they get the 2022 U.S.House and U.S. Senate, AND even more State Governors, there will be absolutely NO reason to even bothering to hold the 2024 Presidential election.....

They are more disciplined and focused than Trump.
And can be team players.

DeSantis would certainly be able to deliver a fascist white minority rule government.

by making a public statement about an ongoing investigation, which went against all previous custom, it tended to open the floodgate and give cover to those who would leak such information....


Still, I am glad to have more information.


One has to admit, until this week the F.B.I. was very damned tight about it all--- so tight that many of us DU armchair legal experts were complaining that they were "doing nothing at all"...


I must recognize those here who said, "do not despair--- just be patient. The investigative cogwheels may seem to turn very slowly-- but they are turning..."


My faith in this AG and justice department has been fully restored.

is to sell them to the highest bidder.

Traitor!

You're right. That MFer. Nixon will refuse to share a cell with him in hell.

Could that $2 Billion to Kushner have been a down payment?

A little quid pro quo?

How much cash flowed around that golf goof-off?

for the heads of all the leading world nations to gather and negotiate prices and availability of U.S. Intelligence on almost everything??
AND close by CPAC's week long meeting with guest speaker, Hungarias? Authoritarian President??????

The putrid stench is getting to the point to where we will all need air pack type respirators to be able to even breath......If Covid doesn't get us, the Republican Party will........

If you indict me I will burn it all down by releasing secrets.

They have made themselves a party to the TREASON!

LOCK THEM UP!

Every cockroach in congress who's been with him so far is scuttling away. "Trump, you say? Never heard of the man."

Members were a party to the knowledge of our Country's secrets being sold to benefit the orange goon or themselves, they should be removed from office and tried for sedition or treason which ever applies.

This whole thing is stunning, but that would just be beyond anything possible.

Because they were uncovering classified documents you dumb fuck!

which judge will issue an arrest warrant for TFG and how many officers will be required (to protect their compatriots, not TFG)?

Wasn't that the theme of the first Mission:Impossible movie?

right after TFG took office and had his meeting in the Oval with Lavrov, et al? I remember thinking TFG must have given names of several spies we had in the Kremlin, GRU, FSB, etc.

That one man at the IT meeting who had a bag thrown over his head, and pulled out of the meeting. I never heard about him again.

but one thing is, we always heard about Trump being distracted, watching TV during national security briefings.

he needed pictures and stuff easy to read and they had to put stuff about him in there to keep his short attention span

someone must have helped him figure the importance/value of these things

Who? Crap most of inner circle knew he was shit

Im guessing Jared

Miller is pure evil but he is also very smart and one of Trump's most loyal sycophants.

I agree that at least one and likely a group of people explained things to Trump. Trump couldn't figure his way out of an unfamiliar bathroom without GPS.

of documents, but helping him get access to them. The nature of these documents is so high security that access to them is very limited to a select few. Those with access are required to stay with the documents if they bring them out for review and to immediately return them afterward to exclusive lock up. According to former CIA Director John Brennan, they are so high security that the are not even uploaded to any system or server anywhere.

So in order for Trump to have these documents, he had to have an accomplice who had access to them.

That is all

Why should they allow him to get away with that?

about that one.

But Bush issued clemency.

and Cheney. As Cheney says, you don’t leave men on the battlefield. Cheney should have been doing time for outing Plame.

Burn him!

And yep, get the fucking leg irons for this. How we make uranium different for reactors and bombs is one thing..

This WAS THE FUCKING NOC LIST.

If this were you or me, we'd ALREADY be on an unmarked plane to Gitmo, and due process in due time.

agaiin!

I've seen him slip out of every single rock solid case against him so I have no expectations that this will be different.

There haven't been ANY real consequences for any Republican criminal actions so I just don't think it's going to happen.
Sigh.

People will need to be pulled back, some may never make it. This guy has to go. I am so surprised that our intel community let this go for so long.

In a speech Thursday, Hillary Clinton argued Donald Trump's temperament makes him unfit to lead the free world. She warned America that if Trump is elected, he could lead us into nuclear war on a whim

the personal information of our country's intelligence assets abroad with him to Mar-a-Lago. What the hell else would he need this information for if not to sell it to our country's foreign enemies? He was going to sell this information, no doubt about it.

If in January he had said it was an oversight, boxes got mixed in, here, have it all back, I never intended to take it, ....

If he had said that, it would have been very difficult to charge the EX-president.



But no, stupidly he had to hang on to them.

He must have an existential need for cash to cover debts.

The Nuclear Documents and now documents with identifying information on Americans that work in human intelligence…HOLYPHUKING💩

I would not put it past DT to think himself so untouchable that he could take docs like this to wipe out his debt or put him up for life out of reach of American LE.

Worse casing this it’s launch codes/launch information for the Nuke docs and identification of undercover spies like Plame was (we will never know how bad or how many got killed because of rove & libby) for the other docs. If this is really that bad and IF info has been passed with action taken on it DT should rightly get the death penalty.

and only a guess is that trump was "compromised" a long time ago by putin.
Would make sense, plus he would get $$$ for them.
He cares ZERO about the US so (in him mind) win-win.


BTW - interesting theory that Melania is the "leak" that told the FBI. That would be sweet, sweet, revenge for her.

Were in wasn't far from swimming pool! God, doesn't that scare the crap out of us all?

I know FBI was waiting for definite proof but shit! Makes you wonder how many saw some of the info.

That's some serious shit. I remember when he gave classified information to the Russian Ambassador. It totally burned a source.

Didn't Trump want Snowden to be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible? Is the hypocrisy at it's finest?

Daring to reveal the role of his Handler