Swamp Watch

[Icarus]

In a staggering abuse of office, Lindsey Graham announces that the Senate will NOT confirm any AG who will investigate/prosecute Trump! There’s a legal term for that, which we’ll discuss in today’s YouTube video (dropping soon).

https://Twitter.com/glennkirschner2/sta ... 33794?s=20

[canpakes]

Preserving the Swamp ...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced plans to appoint another slate of top allies to various government boards, yet another sign that his time in office is winding to a close.

The president named Hope Hicks to be a member of the board overseeing the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Hicks has long been one of Trump’s closest confidants outside of members of his own family and returned to the White House this year after leaving earlier in his presidency. Her Covid-19 diagnosis this fall touched off a deluge of positive tests throughout Trump’s orbit, including the president himself.

The president also nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve on the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as White House staff secretary Derek Lyons, who notified Trump of his plans to leave the job earlier this month.

Trump also tapped Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the acting undersecretary of Defense for intelligence and security, to chair the Public Interest Declassification Board.

Other administration hands include Russ Vought, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget director, who was nominated for a spot on the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors. Stephanie Grisham, the former White House press secretary who never held a formal public media briefing during her tenure, was nominated to the National Board for Education Sciences. And Ric Grenell, Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence who later advised Trump’s reelection campaign from a post at the Republican National Committee, was nominated to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Those individuals were among the more than 40 people named to various “key positions” on panels such as the Commission of Fine Arts, the National Museum and Library Services Board, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

The list includes people who have contributed to Trump's political campaigns, as well as Paolo Zampolli, who has boasted of introducing Trump to now-first lady Melania Trump. Zampolli was nominated for a position on the Kennedy Center board.

Trump has rolled out a handful of other appointment lists in recent weeks, awarding posts to people such as Kellyanne Conway, a 2016 campaign manager and former counselor to the president, and Brian Hook, the Trump administration's former U.S. special representative for Iran.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Not that this matters, and not that President Trump will be prosecuted for his family crime syndicate, but the Right should know the Jared Kushner-made American Made Media Consultants Corporation functioned as a “clearinghouse” to illegally “launder” campaign funds and shield the identities of the ultimate recipients of payments. Lara Trump and the nephew of VP Pence previously served on the board of AMMC when it made massive spending decisions. A billionaire recently made a $6M payment to the fund for a related pardon, but, you know, like, whatevs. You know all those donations to fight the "stolen" election? Yeah...

- Doc

[canpakes]

You know all those donations to fight the "stolen" election? Yeah...

Whooda thunk that it would be the white nationalists, groypers, ‘poor’bois, alt-righties and other regulars of the Trumpster Base that would end up financing the largest expansion of The Swamp, to date?

[MeDotOrg]

Ah, behold the American First Family: The children of Ivanka and Jared now have one Grandpa who was pardoned by their other Grandpa. Chris Christie must be so proud to be a Republican today.

[Moksha]

The revolution starts on January 6, when Outer Darkness seeks to devour the light and place Trump on the throne of New Hades.

[canpakes]

Grow the Swamp!

Trump pardoned former congressmen Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), who pleaded guilty to misuse of campaign funds, and Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who was in prison after being convicted of securities fraud. The president commuted the sentence of former congressman Steve Stockman (R-Tex.), who was convicted of misusing charitable contributions. Hunter and Collins were early and avid supporters of Trump’s campaign.

“Other presidents have occasionally issued abusive, self-serving pardons based on insider connections,” Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith, who has tracked Trump’s pardons and commutations, said via email. “Almost all of Trump’s pardons fit that pattern. What other presidents did exceptionally, Trump does as a matter of course.”

[MeDotOrg]

The White House said the President would be working 'tirelessly' today.

He's on the golf course at Mar-a-Lago. I bet he's winning. Maybe that what he meant when he said that we were going to get so sick and tired of winning. Trump never makes a bad shot because he always gets a Mulligan. Golf is a wonderful game.

Generally speaking, I make my point about the President. Mostly I use sarcasm, but sometimes my rage is too big for sarcasm. I normally don't address Trump apologists directly, but I do today.

It's Christmas Eve, one of the darkest in American history. Forget about Democrat or Republican. December 24, 2020: You're the President of the United States of America. What would Barack Obama have done? What would MItt Romney have done? What would Joe Biden, or George H.W. Bush, or Dubya, or Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, John Kennedy, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson or John Adams have done?

Ask yourself: What would you do?

You would not play golf.

Can you not see that playing golf is not what a normal, compassionate human being would do as President of the United States on December 24th, 2020? You would do something to be a point of light, or to point to light. You would help in a homeless shelter. You would help package meals, or do something for hospital workers or postal workers. You would do something to show Americans that you cared about the death and suffering, and were committing the last days of your Presidency to mitigating some of the suffering.

You would not play golf.

If any act can stand as a narcissistic coda to the last 4 years, it is President Donald John Trump playing golf at Mar-a-Lago on December 24, 2020. If you're keeping score, that's the 315th time he's visited a golf course in his Presidency.

You can believe the election was stolen and still care about the American People. You can care about the real suffering from the Pandemic. But there is no room for that suffering within the narcissistic universe of the President. It's not just that you or I could envision using this day for taking and not giving. Donald Trump has a hard time imagining what that means.

He is wired differently. It's part of his success. He found the happy marriage of narcissism and capitalism: Personal Branding. That's the way he treats politics: you are either a hazard or a benefit to the Trump brand. If you are one of the thousands of Americans who will die of Covid-19 today, you are not a part of the transactional universe that is a positive influence on the Trump brand.

Again, forget Democrat or Republican. This is not the behavior of a good or kind man.

When the Germans were under siege at Stalingrad in WWII, one of the Generals that briefed Hitler daily on the dire situation started eating the same rations that the troops were allowed at Stalingrad. He rapidly lost weight. Hitler ordered him to start eating normally. He did not want to be reminded of the suffering.

Have maskless Christmas parties. Play golf. Pardon cronies and crooks. Donald Trump is not merely a bad President, he is an evil man.

[Gunnar]

Amen, MeDot! It is heartbreakingly tragic how many of his deluded followers still fail to see that glaringly obvious truth! Even more tragic are the numbers of Republican leaders and enablers who not only do see it, but are still trying to capitalize on it.

[Jersey Girl]

What does he care? He loaded up and jetted off to a luxury holiday destination where he and his people can dress in designer clothing, play golf, and eat any darn thing they want while we foot the bill for it. He's probably stuffing his fat face as I write this.