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Meyerson on TAP
‘Scum.’ Speaking at a rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night, our president lamented the fate of his loyal lieutenants Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, both convicted of serious crimes in the course of getting Trump elected. He went after the FBI agents who’d investigated their offenses.
“Their lives were destroyed by scum. Okay? By scum,” said the president of the United States of two FBI agents.
It’s a fool’s errand to chart new Trump lows; they come by the bushel every day. Still, his new terminology for senior federal investigators established a new rhetorical standard for our chief executive, though he has since gone on to ridicule the 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, who is Time’s Person of the Year, when everyone knows that title should have gone to Trump.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all,” one of Trump’s predecessors said near the conclusion of the Civil War. Though if anyone were to claim that Lincoln was a better president than Trump, that person, too, would likely be relegated to the ranks of scumhood by the current occupant of that office.
~ HAROLD MEYERSON |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane: . . . just another Trumpian self-reference: SCUM . . . from a man who is jealous that HE, rather than a teenager, is Time’s pick for the person of the year. He REALLY thinks he should have it, not to mention the Peace Prize. Was it Colbert who said, rather, that Trump should be on the cover of “Socio-pathology Today”? I would have laughed had I not been so exhausted from being shocked daily–and still, we must carry on. CBK
Trump has tweeted his outage that TIME picked the teen crusader for the environment. He is furiously jealous of Greta Thunberg. It was Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker who said that Trump was Popular Sociopath’s Man of the Year.
Trump: “Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”
In response, Greta Thunberg updated her Twitter bio to include this: “a teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”
Ha ha ha !
Greta knows more about dealing with Trump than most adults do.
I’ll say. The Democrats really should nominate a comedian like Al Franken or Bill Maher –conventional politician talk is a loser, and I’m afraid none of the Dems know how to break free of it. Maybe Bernie. David Brooks made this point on NewsHour today while talking about Boris Johnson’s victory.
I know you are no fan of Glenn Greenwald, but he documents how the FBI kind of are scum. The Inspector General’s report shows very clear abuse of power, at least in the case of Carter Page. https://theintercept.com/2019/12/12/the-inspector-generals-report-on-2016-fb-i-spying-reveals-a-scandal-of-historic-magnitude-not-only-for-the-fbi-but-also-the-u-s-media/?comments=1#comments
I understand that people hate Trump so much that anything seems justified to get rid of him, but allowing the intelligence agencies to disregard civil rights protections for American citizens is a far greater threat than Trump. I wish people could understand that the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.
Trump & his posse repeatedly disregard civil rights protections for American citizens, as demonstrated at a minimum by how he and DeVos have eviscerated the Office of Civil rights in the Department of Education. They have no regard for human rights protections anywhere in the world –a feature that has long distinguished NATO countries from oppressive dictatorships, while Trump does Putin’s bidding and aims to destroy NATO & is only concerned about how much money NATO countries pay.
I really care about people, especially historically marginalized groups here and the little guy in every country, so yes, I too would be considered scum by dictator-wannabe Trump and his fellow authoritarian friends, which includes most in his party.
“I understand that people hate Trump so much that anything seems justified to get rid of him..
It is interesting that dienne77 just happens to be repeating the exact same talking points that we heard Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz use to excuse Trump’s corrupt dealings with Ukraine. dienne77 is promoting the right wing talking point that there is no evidence that Trump did anything wrong, and dienne77 appears to believe Trump has been exonerated of any wrongdoing. I guess she missed the evidence in plain sight in Trump’s Ukraine dealings.
“To spy on a U.S. citizen in the middle of an election, one who had just been working with one of the two major presidential campaigns…”
It is interesting that Glenn Greenwald just happens to be repeating the exact same talking points that we heard Republicans use about “spying”.
Here is a fact that Glenn Greenwald and dienne77 have lied about. That FISA wiretapping happened AFTER the Trump campaign publicly stated that Carter Page had absolutely nothing to do with their campaign.
Why would wiretapping a random guy with no connection to a campaign have any effect on a campaign?
Greenwald writes an entire screed manufacturing outrage about how dangerous it is to an election to wiretap someone connected to a Presidential campaign using an example of a wiretap of someone who had no connection to any Presidential campaign. That’s what the Trump campaign said at the time — this guy has absolutely nothing to do with us! So Greenwald’s lie that Carter Page was closely associated with the campaign when the Trump campaign itself has said he was not is very concerning. Why would Greenwald try so hard to deceive his readers to believe something that is a patently false? That is not normal behavior by a reporter.
Greenwald reminds me of Lindsay Graham. Their willingness to lie and sycophancy to Trump’s agenda is so over the top that there must be something else going on.
When Greenwald, dienne77 and Republicans use the same lying talking points, then Russia, we have a problem.
Sigh….
The Inspector General and the Republicans just told Americans that this wiretapping of Carter Page was clearly based on anti-Trump FBI agents trying to get Trump because as far as the IG had found in his 19 months of looking, there was not a single other time that such FISA wiretapping requests were abused. The only time that it was abused was by these anti-Trump FBI agents trying to “get” him by wiretapping Carter Page. (Who actually had no association with the Trump campaign at the time!)
So it’s odd that Glenn Greenwald believes everything the Republicans and IG say, which was that this wiretapping was a once in a lifetime event that occurred solely because the entire FBI was blatantly anti-Trump and trying to elect Hillary Clinton.
Was Glenn Greenwald’s article focused on how the IG was intentionally covering up OTHER abuses of wiretapping that happen all the time in an effort to help the dishonest Republican narrative that the FBI was singularly out to get Trump? If not, then he seems to be agreeing that this was a one-time effort that had never before happened. So no worries, right?
If Glenn Greenwald is now saying that the IG’s testimony was intentionally covering up the many abuses in FISA requests to help “prove” the Republican narrative that the FBI was out to get Trump, then I would have more sympathy for his POV.
Is that what Greenwald is saying? That the IG covered up other FISA abuses to promote the Republican narrative that had to be the result of anti-Trump bias since such abuses never happened before?
If that is your point about Greenwald, then I agree that the IG gave highly misleading testimony to help lying Republicans exonerate Trump. I agree with Greenwald that the IG trying to convince the American people that these mistakes only happen when the left wing FBI wants to “get” a Republican is a dangerous lie and I hope Greenwald makes that clear.
The IG report said that the investigation of the Trumpcampaign did not involve political bias and that it was based on reasonable concern.
Interesting that Director Comey announced that Hillary was under FBI investigation for her use of a private email server but never announced that Trump was also under investigation for collusion with Russia.
Why the disparity?
By Department rules and custom, he should have announced neither.
Diane,
You are correct. I’m just pointing out that Glenn Greenwald has VERY selective outrage. The IG implied that the wiretapping of Carter Page was so egregious and unusual, but Glenn Greenwald’s objection to FISA would have been much stronger had Greenwald pointed out that these kinds of errors in FISA warrants have been happening for years and years and it needs to stop.
Instead, Greenwald’s main purpose was to push the Republican narrative that the FBI was out to get Trump. He sacrifices his concern about FISA to pushing the right wing narrative about how everyone at the FBI is out to get Trump.
Glenn’s concern with FISA abuse is purely political. If he was really concerned, he would have been outraged that the IG left the public believing that 2016 was the first time this happened.
dienne77 says:
“allowing the intelligence agencies to disregard civil rights protections for American citizens is a far greater threat than Trump…”
Do you NOT believe it is a serious threat when a President uses the power of the Presidency and the power of the Attorney General to smear a rival candidate?
You and Glenn Greenwald are not concerned about that, which is odd.
What do you think happens when Trump believes he has the right to use his office to smear a rival candidate, with people like Glenn Greenwald not objecting?
If Bernie Sanders wins the nomination, Donald Trump has a phone conversation with a local Vermont prosecutor, holding up federal funding for something Vermont children desperately need in exchange for that prosecutor working with Giuliani and William Barr to do an investigation into the wrongdoing committed by Jane Sanders at her college and Bernie’s efforts to cover it up. Trump will demand that the Vermont prosecutor go on a major network to make a statement that Rudy Giuliani helps draft and Trump approves of that sufficiently smears Bernie and Jane Sanders. Remember, the actual investigation doesn’t matter — what is necessary is the public announcement that there is a lot of terrible and illegal things that happened connected to Jane and Bernie Sanders that need to be investigated.
For all we know that plan is ALREADY in the works and Trump has had conversations with the Vermont prosecutor that have been locked up. The public won’t know about it unless a whistle blower comes forward, and Trump and the Republicans have made it very clear what they would do to any whistle blower so don’t hold your breath that the public would find out about it.
None of us will know anything until Bernie starts looking like a frontrunner who could defeat Trump and a public announcement of the investigation into Bernie and Jane’s corrupt behavior is announced.
Now some Bernie supporters would say “oh this is political because you weren’t interested in investigating Bernie “corruption” until he became the frontrunner”. Unfortunately that isn’t going to matter. That was exactly what they said about Trump not caring about Hunter Biden “corruption” until Biden was the frontrunner! So we know the press will say the timing is irrelevant and the important thing is that Jane and Bernie did something corrupt so it must be investigated just like Hunter Biden needs to be investigated. Remember, merely the appearance that there could be something wrong demands a full investigation, just like with the Bidens.
There are those on the left who hate Democrats so much that they are condoning a terrible abuse of power because they think they can control it and Trump will only turn it on politicians they don’t like.
Remember, the actions that are the basis of impeachment were all done in secret and the public didn’t know about it for months. If we condone Trump doing this to Biden, we simple empower Trump to do it to Bernie next time. With William Barr and Rudy helping the Vermont prosecutor with the “Sanders investigation” and the media breathlessly reporting every leak from their office to smear Bernie.
In short:
I would have a lot more sympathy for Glenn Greenwald’s concern about a single improper wiretap whose “victim” was not prosecuted by evidence collected from it if Glenn was EQUALLY outraged by Trump’s abuse of power that is being enabled by Republicans and those who seem to believe it is all a nothing burger.
This impeachment is about making sure that Trump’s abuse of power is called out for what it is, in the hopes that even if the Republican Senate say it is okay, the people will still believe it is wrong when it is turned on Bernie or Warren or AOC or someone else.
I am certain that Trump is already hatching many new corrupt plans to rig 2020. Why wouldn’t he? Ethical fiber? Fear of a new impeachment? Possible defection of fellow Republicans? Ha. He only stands to gain from additional illegal behavior. This is why he must be removed now –he’s lawless. Sad that he won’t be.
Trump has never done honest dealing in his life. He has lived in a nether zone where only suckers are honest. Do you remember the debate where he implied that he doesn’t pay taxes. He said that proved he’s smart.
How to pay for the troops if no one pays taxes? Or his Wall? Or any government services at all?
Diane I guess all of us chumps who pay taxes pay for it. I heard today that Ukraine still hasn’t received all of their promised money. (Probably diverted to pay for the “wall.”) CBK
ponderosa,
dienne77 and Glenn Greenwald are simply doing exactly what they did when the Mueller Report was released. They were repeating the right wing talking points that the Mueller Report had totally exonerated Trump of any wrongdoing and now Glenn is ignoring the long history of FISA abuses to help promote the utterly false right wing narrative that the anti-Trump FBI only abused its FISA power one time in order to “get” Trump by (more or less) illegally wiretapping someone who was in constant contact with the campaign.
It proves how little Glenn cares about FISA abuses. He turned the long history of FISA abuse into a single narrative of an anti-Trump FBI abusing its power only once to get Trump. That lie does nothing to combat FISA abuses, but it does a lot to empower Trump and the far right.
Yes, in President Trump’s universe, I am indeed scum.
But–and I don’t mean to be too Freudian about this–I think the president may be projecting.
Ah, projection… per wiki, “commonly found in personalities functioning at a primitive level as in narcissistic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder” – or sociopaths, or psychopaths, apparently they all do it. Such a tough diagnosis 😉
If Trump ever gets the same power Hitler had, imagine how many Americans will vanish into concentration camps, including me, to be tortured before elimination until only a few
Americans are left, all white, all racists, willing to clean the lint between Trump’s toes with their tongues while they chant how smart he is, how handsome he is, and what a great god he is.
You nailed it Lloyd. This is not hyperbole. This is why we must pull out all the stops to resist this guy and the movement he’s spawned.
One just has to look into the eyes of anyone at his rallies, anyone who relies on Fox for their world view, or any Republican state legislator, congressman or senator. They would have no problem putting their political opposition in internment camps or worse. And people like Romney, Sasse, or Portman would just wag their fingers as they stood by to watch it happen. It helps explain why civil wars are the most brutal of all conflicts.
All non-Republican teachers should spend summer vacation in Wisconsin and Arizona registering voters. Retirees too.
Add Texas to the list. I’ve read several pieces about this possibly happening.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/08/politics/could-texas-go-blue-2020/index.html
We need to be strategic and nail down the most winnable swing states. Texas is a reach. If you live in TX, by all means, but the rest of us should try to build the firewall with AZ , FL, MI, PA and NC.
And WI.
I am proud to be considered SCUM by the Snowflake in Chief. (I may just make a t-shirt!)