Paul McGuire warns Jim Bakker: Trump is under attack from ‘multidimensional Luciferian advanced beings’

Mod: A few months back Paul McGuire appeared on the Jim Bakker Show to quite shamelessly flog his new book, Trumpocalypse. And you know, the bizarre stuff he shared with Jim that day really isn't that much crazier than a lot of what those defending Trump have been claiming lately. Since there isn't much else left in their quiver, why shouldn't they go full medieval?

Christian author: Trump is under attack from ‘multidimensional Luciferian advanced beings’ (DEADState link): Last week, End Times author Paul McGuire appeared on the Jim Bakker Show and declared that President Trump is currently engulfed in “the greatest spiritual battle in the history of all mankind.” He expanded on his claim on his radio program this Thursday, this time clarifying that the battle is with “advanced beings” who possess “supernatural multidimensional” powers. And it gets even weirder.

“The physical battles that we see in our world and nation right now are a direct manifestation of the spiritual battles going on in the invisible realm,” McGuire said in an audio clip flagged by Right Wing Watch.

“There are people very high up in what is called the globalist occult or globalist Luciferian rulership system, and this rulership system consists of what used to be called the Pharaoh-God Kings, it’s what Aldous Huxley called ‘The Scientific Dictatorship,’ and these are advanced beings who know how to tap into supernatural multidimensional power and integrate it with science, technology, and economics,” he continued.

McGuire even had the hierarchical structure of these advanced beings pegged, saying they are at the “highest level of the pyramidic organizational structure in which the highest ranking officers, if you will, of the New World Order and Mystery Babylon are ruling the earth through an organizational structure that looks like the pyramid on the back of the U.S. dollar.”

“And they control the world because they understand that the true control of the world is done through supernatural mechanisms.”

Mod: A blog that calls itself Skeptical Analysis discussed Paul McGuire's "Trumpocalypse." I'm posting some of that here for a little perspective. The entire article is available at the link below.

Wacko Right Wing Religious Fanatics Say The Darndest Things (Skeptical Analysis link): I like to tell people that right-wing religious fanatics say the darndest things, and I don’t have far to go when looking for examples. Most recently (see the above link) I caught a video of right-wing religious fanatic Paul McGuire appearing on the Jim Bakker Show. He was there with co-author Troy Anderson, and much of the discussion centered on the book. 

Jesus will forgive me, but I had to purchase a copy. It is Trumpocalypse, and the Kindle edition is $14 ($13.99), delivered in seconds to my computer. Remember, I read these things so that you won’t have to. Anyhow, it’s worth a stroll through the 316 pages to see what passes for wisdom in some circles. I did that and picked out some bits for your enjoyment. First, some stats:

- The word “conspiracy” appears 31 times.

- Hillary Clinton is mentioned 51 times.

- President Obama is mentioned 58 times.

- There are 22 references to the Rothschild family.

- “Apocalypse” appears 18 times, always capitalized.

- There are 51 references to variations of the term “end-times.”

- “Occult” appears 113 times.

- “Deep state” appears 32 times.

- Variations of “supernatural” appear in  52 places, sometimes in reference to the title of a work.

- “Multi-dimensional” does not appear anywhere in any form in the book, despite author McGuire’s recent statement on the Jim Bakker Show that President Trump is currently engulfed in a battle with “advanced beings” who possess "supernatural multidimensional’ powers.”

- And finally the book uses “Illuminati” 147 times, always capitalized.

It is worth noting that many of these references occur in passages McGuire quotes from others. Fact is, a significant bulk of text consists of quoted passages.

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Melania Trump Fears For Donald's Health -- He's Under 'Immense Stress' From Investigations

A video link is here.

Mod: A publicity flack working for the FLOTUS would like to assure everyone that Melania cares deeply about the crazy old man she allegedly married for his money. 

Melania Trump Fears For Donald's Health -- He's Under 'Immense Stress' From Investigations (HollywoodLife.com link): Melania Trump is worrying about the stress Donald Trump is ‘under’ from the ongoing Mueller investigation! A source close to Melania told HL EXCLUSIVELY that she still ‘believes’ him.

Following Michael Cohen‘s three-year sentencing, Melania Trump has become “concerned” about how her husband Donald Trump is dealing with the continuing Russian investigation. A source close to the first lady told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY how the ongoing Mueller investigation has affected Donald’s health. “Melania is concerned about the effect all these investigations are having on Donald’s health, but she isn’t concerned about the outcome of any investigations,” our source told us. “Melania believes her husband’s claim that he’s being subjected to a ‘witch hunt’ and that there’s no truth to the allegations against him.”

Meanwhile, Melania has noticed Donald is more stressed than usual. “Donald is still under immense stress right now though,” our source added. “He feels like he’s being attacked from all sides and that his enemies will stop at nothing to bring him down, and Melania can’t help worrying about how his body is dealing with all that stress, which keeps growing by the day.”

Melania, who recently insisted that she and the president have great “chemistry,” is trying to support Donald amid the growing pressures of the investigation. “Melania is doing what she does best in these kind of situations,” our source went on to say. “She’s being Donald’s rock, and a soothing voice of calm and reason. She’s there for him 100 percent.” We’ll keep you posted with all of the latest news about Melania and Donald.

Video link here.

Trump Threatens to Sue "Saturday Night Live" over "It's a Wonderful Life" Parody (Mother Jones link): President Donald Trump rekindled his war against “Saturday Night Live” on Sunday morning, seemingly threatening to sue after the show after it aired a segment imagining an alternative universe in which he was never elected. The “real scandal,” Trump insisted in a tweet, is the “one sided coverage of NBC & Democratic spin machines like Saturday Night Live.” He added, “Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal?”

The sketch was a parody of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the holiday classic, featuring key figures from in and outside the administration gloating about how much better their lives are without a Trump presidency. Michael Cohen (played by Ben Stiller) isn’t going to prison. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is making a killing in PR. Kellyanne Conway is on speaking terms with her husband. Even Brett Kavanaugh (Matt Damon) gloats about how he’s free to talk about beer without coming off as physically threatening. And then there’s Robert Mueller (Robert DeNiro), who gets to spend more time with his grandson instead of “investigating the president for treason.”

Trump is notoriously sensitive, litigious, and hostile toward the media. But after a week in which his personal attorney and fixer was sentenced to three years in prison for acting on his orders to pay women hush money during the 2016 election, he’s probably in no mood to laugh.

Video here.

Fox News whisperer Sherman says network is collapsing on Trump: 'Fox can't stay on the talking points' (Raw Story link): Sharing a clip of Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano breaking the news to the Fox & Friends hosts that Donald Trump did indeed break the law, an MSNBC panel focused on the conservative network’s coming break-up with the president as his legal woes worsen. In particular, AM Joy host Joy Reid reveled in the fact that there appears to be widening fractures in the relationship between Trump and his favorite cable network.

“Are we seeing sort of a disturbance in the force?” Reid quipped to MSNBC contributor Gabriel Sherman. “Some people at Fox can’t stay on the talking points.”

Dooced?

“I love in the clip where Steve Doocy was shocked,” Sherman laughed. “He was like — there was like a glitch in the Matrix and suddenly like truth came through and he said, ‘What crime had he committed?'”

“I think there are moments but I think ultimately, you know, the network is still behind him,” Sherman added. “The question is when does the audience turn on Trump? This is a ratings game for Fox. If they start to see the ratings erode, you’ll see more and more hosts break with the Steve Doocey.”

This video is here.

NYU law professor drops hammer on Giuliani for latest defense of Trump: ‘We are in a death spiral of stupid’ (Raw Story link): New York University law professor Melissa Murray lamented on Sunday that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is descending down “a death spiral of stupid” after the former New York mayor argued that Donald Trump did not break campaign finance laws by paying hush money to alleged mistresses during the 2016 campaign.

While appearing on ABC News Sunday morning, Giuliani said that President Trump cannot be charged with campaign finance violations because paying off mistresses is not a campaign expense by definition.

Murray first pointed out that Giuliani had been wrong to assert that “collusion” is not a crime.  “Giuliani is correct that collusion [with Russia] is not a federal crime writ large,” Murray said. “But all of the activities that go into collusion — misleading statements, collaborating with a foreign government, directing payments from a foreign government to a campaign — all of those things are federal crimes and the conspiracy to engage with others to do this is also a crime.”

Murray went on to say that Giuliani was also incorrect to suggest that prosecutors have a “weak” case on campaign finance violations because Trump had paid only “a little money” to his alleged mistresses.

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Adam Schiff Is Prepping An Investigation Of Trump That’ll Make Mueller’s Look Like Child’s Play

Mod: It could be that in a few months Donald will be thinking of the Mueller investigation as "the good old days."

Adam Schiff Is Prepping An Investigation Of Trump That’ll Make Mueller’s Look Like Child’s Play (PoliticusUSA link): While Robert Mueller’s investigation has so far been thorough and far-reaching, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff – the soon-to-be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee – is preparing to dig into the president’s criminal activity in a way that could make the current special counsel probe look like child’s play.

During an interview with The New Yorker, “Schiff talked about his plans for conducting an investigation that will be parallel to Mueller’s, probing Trump’s connections to Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other places around the world.”

The New Yorker added: “As Schiff described his approach, it became clear that he wasn’t just planning to cross Trump’s red line—he intended to obliterate it.” Schiff said that the role of the committee he will soon lead “is not the same as Bob Mueller’s.” Instead, he believes that in addition to finding criminal activity, Congress has an added responsibility to make the public aware of any corruption or wrongdoing.

“The American people have a right to know that their President is working on their behalf, not his family’s financial interests,” the powerful Democratic congressman told The New Yorker. “Right now, I don’t think any of us can have the confidence that that’s the case.”

More from The New Yorker:

Congressional committees, like the one Schiff will soon lead, are supposed to monitor the executive branch and expose wrongdoing. Mueller is supposed to file a report on his findings, but, in keeping with the regulations for the office of the special counsel, it will be up to his supervisor in the Justice Department, who is now Matthew Whitaker, the acting Attorney General, to determine whether Mueller’s report is made public. Schiff has his own agenda for areas to investigate. “The one that has always concerned me is the financial issues, which obviously have come much to the fore this week,” he said. Shortly before Schiff and I spoke, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, had pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his role in the negotiations for building a Trump tower in Moscow. Cohen had said earlier that these discussions ended in January, 2016, but he admitted in court that he had been negotiating with Russian officials, and keeping Trump apprised, through the first half of 2016, during the Republican Presidential primaries. Trump has denied that he was doing business with the Russians during this period.

Schiff went on, “At the end of the day, what should concern us most is anything that can have a continuing impact on the foreign policy and national-security policy of the United States, and, if the Russians were laundering money for the Trump Organization, that would be totally compromising.” Schiff hypothesizes that Trump went beyond using his campaign and the Presidency as a vehicle for advancing his business interests, speculating that he may have shaped policy with an eye to expanding his fortune. “There’s a whole constellation of issues where that is essentially the center of gravity,” Schiff said. “Obviously, that issue is implicated in efforts to build Trump Tower in Moscow. It’s implicated in the money that Trump is bragging he was getting from the Saudis. And why shouldn’t he love the Saudis? He said he was making so much money from them.”

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Texas Federal judge strikes down ObamaCare - Trump Gloats and takes credit

Mod: It has been described as "extreme judicial activism." Here is how one pundit explains how this could end up becoming a political disaster for the GOP. Obamacare has never been more popular than it is now. Democrats ran in 2018 on healthcare and keeping pre-existing conditions as part of health insurance plans and will continue to do so in 2020. It helped power the Blue Wave. If this decision stands there will be a push for Medicare for all. An issue that could turn the White House blue in two years.

Federal judge in Texas strikes down ObamaCare (The Hill link): A federal judge in Texas on Friday struck down the Affordable Care Act, throwing a new round of uncertainty into the fate of the law just one day before the deadline to sign up for coverage for next year.

U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor ruled that the law's individual mandate is unconstitutional, and that because the mandate cannot be separated from the rest of the law, the rest of the law is also invalid.

The ruling is certain to be appealed, and legal experts in both parties have said they ultimately expect the challenge to the health law will not succeed. ObamaCare will remain in effect while the case is appealed.

President Trump took to Twitter on Friday night to tout the judge's ruling while calling on congressional leaders to work on a new law, despite the chances of Congress passing a replacement law that both parties can agree being essentially zero.

"Now Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions. Mitch and Nancy, get it done!" Trump tweeted, referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and expected incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

O'Connor, an appointee of President George W. Bush, acknowledged in his ruling that health care is a "politically charged affair — inflaming emotions and testing civility."

But he added courts "are not tasked with, nor are they suited to, policymaking." Instead, he said they must determine what the Constitution requires. In this, case O'Connor said the Constitution does not allow the mandate to stand.

The reasoning of the ruling states that in 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the mandate to have coverage because of Congress's power to tax. But, last year, Congress removed the fine for failing to comply with the mandate, which, he argues, means the mandate is no longer a tax and therefore is unconstitutional.

In a controversial move, the judge added that because the mandate is "essential" to the rest of the law, without the mandate, the entire law is invalid.

Legal experts in both parties have denounced that argument, saying it is obvious that Congress wanted the rest of the Affordable Care Act to remain when it repealed only the mandate penalty last year.

Democrats accused the judge of waiting until after the election to issue the ruling, saying he knew striking down the law before the election would harm Republicans.

The court case, brought by 20 GOP-led states, was at the center of this year's campaign after Democrats attacked Republicans for supporting the lawsuit and seeking to overturn ObamaCare's protections for pre-existing conditions. The Trump administration, in a rare move, declined to defend the law in court and instead argued the pre-existing condition protections should be overturned.

Nicholas Bagley, a law professor at the University of Michigan, wrote on Twitter Friday night that he thinks the ruling does not prevent the Affordable Care Act from remaining in effect while the appeals process plays out, because there is no injunction from the court.

"Everyone should remain calm," he wrote.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said Friday in a statement that he hopes the ruling is overturned.

“The ruling seems to be based on faulty legal reasoning and hopefully it will be overturned," he said. "Americans who care about working families must do all they can to prevent this district court ruling from becoming law.”

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wants To Be Remembered For Being 'Transparent And Honest'

Mod: Sarah is supposed to be leaving the Trump zoo in the next month or so, and she has a little going away wish. Of course, a first step would require her to be transparent and honest. Something she is not known for just quite yet.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wants To Be Remembered For Being 'Transparent And Honest' (Huffington Post link): Sarah Huckabee Sanders hopes to be remembered for being “transparent and honest” when her tenure as White House press secretary comes to an end. As HuffPost has reported previously, Sanders has a well-documented history of giving false and misleading information to the press.

Late last month, the press secretary was fact-checked live on air by CNN as she defended President Donald Trump’s rejection of the government’s National Climate Assessment.

Politifact currently cites five times when Sanders has given objectively false information.

Speaking to Politico’s Eliana Johnson about what she wanted her legacy to be, Sanders said she hoped it would include turning up every day and doing “the very best job that I could to put forward the president’s message.”

“To do the best job that I could do to answer questions, to be transparent and honest throughout that process,” she said at the sixth annual Women Rule Summit. “And do everything I could to make America a little better that day than it was the day before.”

Sanders also defended the president’s attitude toward female reporters, which has included insulting their intelligence and accusing them of asking “stupid” questions.

When asked by Johnson whether she believed Trump’s behavior was appropriate, Sanders said it was all about equality.

“The president is not ― is certainly not singling out women,” Sanders said. “And, frankly, I think it is actually a detriment when we do that. I think by asking am I upset because he called out a female reporter, absolutely not. Women wanted to be treated equally, and we have a president that certainly does that. He is not going to hold back.”

video link here

Former Apprentice Staffer Claims Trump Was ‘Speed Freak,’ Invited Teen Beauty Queens to His Suite (Mediaite link): A former staffer on The Apprentice and current stand-up comic named Noel Casler claims that Donald Trump was a “speed freak” who snorted crushed-up Adderall, and also says that Trump invited teen beauty pageant contestants up to his suite. During a recent performance, Casler told the crowd that he worked on The Apprentice for six seasons, as well as some of Trump’s beauty pageants during the 1990s, and he made some brutal revelations:

I worked on a bunch of those beauty pageants he had in the nineties too. That was a good idea, Miss Teen Universe? Yeah, that’s like giving Jeffrey Dahmer a cooking show. He would line up the girls on the side of the stage, and he would inspect them literally, he would stick his little freaking doll fingers in their mouth and look at their teeth. I’m not kidding, this is true, he would line them up like they were pieces of meat. He’d be like, “You, you, and you, if you want to win I’m in the penthouse suite, come and see me.” Yep. If Trump had a cooking show they’d call it the douchebag diet. McDonald’s, chocolate ice cream, and girls that look like Ivanka are all he ever eats.

Casler then claimed that Trump is a “speed freak,” and that Trump “crushes up his Adderall and he sniffs it because he can’t read, so he gets really nervous when he has to read the cue cards.”

Casler told the crowd “I’m not kidding this is true. I had a 24-page NDA non-disclosure agreement, I didn’t know that he was becoming president, now it’s no way dumbass, I’m telling you everything I know.”

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The Intellectualist: Trump Allegedly Paid Hush Money For Eight Abortions

Mod: Highly sordid information revealed as part of the Cohen plea deal continues to emerge. Citing a British news source called the Spectator, here is some of the latest speculation on what exactly is being bandied about per The Intellectualist.

Report: Trump Allegedly Paid Hush Money For Eight Abortions (The Intellectualist link): According to The Spectator, President Donald Trump might have paid as many as eight women to have abortions and stay quiet about sexual affairs — which would be felony offenses, if they occurred during his presidential campaign.

"There are rumors, too, of Trump mistresses paid to have abortions and kept quiet with non-disclosure agreements. One source tells Cockburn that there are eight such women. This is more than merely sad and sordid: if any of these payments were made while Trump was running for President, there would be new campaign finance violations, all felony offenses. [Michael] Cohen was said to have handled all this. Cohen was also a vice-president of the Trump Organization and knows about how the secretive family business was conducted. This matters because state prosecutors in New York are now said to be looking again at how condos in Trump buildings were sold – not by Trump, but by his older children, Don Junior, Eric and Ivanka."

Mod: Here that Spectator article. It is also available at this link.

SPOTTED: Michael Cohen, on the train from Washington DC to New York city last night. President Trump’s former lawyer was returning home after a day trip to the nation’s capital. If he thought he could slip in and out un-noticed, he was mistaken. ABC News put up a brief story online, implying that he was probably there to meet Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel investigating the Trump campaign and Russia.

This was the purpose of the visit – if not Mueller, then Mueller’s staff – though he was already on his way home by the time the ABC piece ran. No one could say what, specifically, he was talking to Mueller about – however, he brought his own lawyer along for the meeting. Was this the signing of the immunity agreement that the American media have long speculated could help bring down his old boss? Cockburn can’t say, though he does know that even before Mr Cohen came to Washington, he had racked up 80 hours of discussions with various prosecutors (more than the 50 hours that has been widely reported). Clearly he has a lot to get off his chest.

So the whiff of panic comes from the President’s Android phone when he tweets about the man he once trusted (allegedly) to do his dirty work. ‘If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!’ But what – if any of these allegations are proven – did the ‘dirty work’ consist of? Cohen has already admitted to breaching campaign finance rules by paying hush money to a porn ‘actress’, Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump. He says he did this at the direction of the man who would shortly be elected to the Presidency.

A Wall Street Journal report on how this was done landed like a mortar bomb in the Rose Garden on Friday. The details are devastating. ‘What can you do to help my campaign’ the story has Trump asking David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer. Pecker was – it’s claimed – brought on board to help Cohen silence Stormy Daniels, and another woman, a former Playboy model called Karen McDougal. Trump asks Cohen: ‘So, what are we gonna pay…150?’ Cohen replies, ‘Yes’ to the payment of $150,000 to McDougal. There is, allegedly, a recording of this conversation.

There are rumors, too, of Trump mistresses paid to have abortions and kept quiet with non-disclosure agreements. One source tells Cockburn that there could be as many as eight such women. (Cockburn should point out that Trump has been the subject of rumors about secret abortions for years, and has admitted no such thing.) But this is more than merely sad and sordid: if any such payments were made while Trump was running for President, there could be new campaign finance violations, all felony offenses. Cohen was said to have handled all this. Cohen was also a vice-president of the Trump Organization and knows about how the secretive family business was conducted. This matters because state prosecutors in New York are now said to be looking again at how condos in Trump buildings were sold – not by Trump, but by his older children, Don Junior, Eric and Ivanka.

But what Cohen has to say about Russia could matter more. Cohen and his lawyer, Lanny Davis, continue to deny – emphatically – that he ever went to Prague to meet Russian agents, as is claimed in the ‘dossier’ written by a former MI6 officer, Christopher Steele. Cohen has told people he is being ‘framed’ for Prague – the story, after all, amounts to an allegation of treason. But he has also hinted, privately, that he has other things to say about the Trump campaign’s (alleged) links to the Kremlin… conversations he witnessed, rather than things he did. People who’ve met him in recent weeks say he seems like a recovering victim of Stockholm syndrome; he was humiliated publicly by Trump for years. The man who once said he’d ‘take a bullet’ for the President now calls him a ‘son of a bitch’. He feels that Trump should leave office in disgrace and if he can help with that, why not?

So, Michael Cohen, hero of the resistance?

Fmr National Enquirer Editor: David Pecker Gave Trump Org 'Free Rein' to 'Dictate the Coverage' (Mediaite link): During an interview with Erin Burnett on Wednesday, former National Enquirer Los Angeles Bureau Chief Jerry George said Donald Trump did indeed wield considerable power at National Enquirer and was, as others have suggested, a “silent editor” who could nix a story he did not like. He then said this: “David Pecker had given the Trump Organization free rein to dictate the coverage, and of course, you know, cover up any unflattering stories about the candidate during the election.”

“There are other instances of this involving other women,” George replied. “And there’s also the Saudi connection that David Pecker has obtained through President Trump.”

“Well, you know, American Media [parent company of the National Enquirer] put out a Saudi special, a tourism special earlier this year, seemingly out of left field. It was racked at Walmart, and it was a glossy, and it wasn’t the terrain for, as usual, with The Enquirer. And then shortly after that, The Enquirer, bought up, swallowed up its competitor, Bauer publications, so the money came from somewhere. I think it’s suspicious and a lot of people do.”

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Nancy Pelosi: Portrait of a Badass who ate the president's lunch - and then walked away like a boss

Mod: No wall for Donald? Going to shut down the government like a big baby? Somebody certainly did get his butt kicked by the incoming Speaker of the House. 

Nancy Pelosi Just Mocked the President* to His Face in the Oval Office (Esquire link): On Tuesday, right about at lunchtime, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer dropped down the street to the White House to have a chat with the president*. What followed was a piece of video that will live forever as a window into this sludgepot of a political moment. It is not that remarkable if you've ever watched Question Time from any of the various parliaments around the world. (I mean, holy Oliver Cromwell, somebody presented the mace in the House of Commons on Monday.) But, because the American government is greased by tawdry piety and transparently artificial civility, the meeting might as well have taken place in the Octogon.

The single most lasting impression of this altogether remarkable bit of reality-show theater was the look we got into what happens when people tell this particular president* that he can't have what he wants.

Watch as Pelosi tries, not altogether angrily, to explain to him that he doesn't have the votes for the big, beautiful, stupid wall for which, of course, Mexico is going to pay. She says the votes aren't there. He keeps saying he can get them instantly, but that the problem is that he can't get the votes in the Senate. They're both right. He doesn't have the votes in either place. But he runs down all the applause lines that get the rubes all ginned up at his rallies, and Pelosi keeps calmly telling him that, while he's as full of shit as the Christmas goose, nevertheless he and his big, beautiful, stupid wall should get further stuffed anyway.

(You should also notice that, off to one side, Mike Pence clearly has been shot with the trank gun by the Secret Service.)

Even Schumer suddenly discovers a thin vein of iron in his spine and maneuvers El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago into bragging about shutting down the government unless he gets his way, thereby undercutting any political strategy the Republicans in Congress might have been developing to blame a prospective shutdown on the Democrats. That sound you hear is the Republican congressional leadership taking delivery of a barge-load of bourbon.

Welcome to the next two years, and thank nature's god for them.

Pelosi has the president in her pocket and she knows it. (It will dawn on him eventually, too. Maybe.) The House controls the budget and, in January, the Democratic Party will hold the House. Since any argument about Pelosi's being an Accommodating Liberal Sellout should die with the release of this video, she will be the Speaker—and, as such, she can shred his administration*. This is the most essential part.

Reporter says Trump 'stormed out' of Oval Office after Dem meeting (The Hill link): Los Angeles Times White House reporter Eli Stokols said Tuesday that President Trump "stormed out" of the Oval Office after a meeting Tuesday with key Democrats and threw a folder full of papers out of frustration.

"He stormed out of the Oval, walked into an anteroom just off the Oval Office and had in his hand a folder of briefing papers. And he just scattered them out of frustration - threw them across the room," Stokols said on MSNBC's "Hardball," citing his own reporting with White House officials.

Trump met Tuesday with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer inside the Oval Office.

The public meeting quickly generated headlines after Trump pledged to shut down the government if he couldn't get funding for a wall along the southern border. He also said he would take the blame for that shutdown if it occurs.

"I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck," Trump told Schumer. "I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it." Stokols, the Los Angeles Times reporter, also said Tuesday on "Hardball" that Trump was frustrated with Schumer following the meeting.

"His old New York sparring buddy, he felt, got the better of him," Stokols said.

No evidence for Trump claim on 'terrorists': government sources (Reuters link):  President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that U.S. authorities had “caught 10 terrorists,” citing it as a reason for why the United States should build a wall on its Mexican border, but four government sources said there was no recent evidence of terrorism suspects being caught along the border.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said: “We do not have evidence of known or suspected foreign terrorist organizations trying to infiltrate the southern U.S. border.”

Three national security officials agreed with that view, saying they knew of no recent border-related arrests. The three officials also asked not to be identified.

In a contentious White House meeting on Tuesday with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Trump demanded $5 billion in taxpayer funding for his wall, threatening a federal shutdown if he did not get the money.

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‘The bottom is going to fall out’: Republicans are privately discussing abandoning Trump

Mod: In the end it will be a fear for their own hide that will cause Republicans to pull the plug on Trump. It might be the only way for them to save the GOP.

‘The bottom is going to fall out’: White House reporter says Republicans are privately discussing abandoning Trump (Raw Story link): Donald Trump is facing a “looming problem” as Republicans contemplate abandoning the president as more evidence of wrongdoing comes to light, Los Angeles Times White House reporter Eli Stokols explained on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” on Monday.

Host Nicolle Wallace played a clip of Trump supporter and former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie wondering what additional evidence special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in Manhattan have obtained.

“And you’ve seen the president attacking Michael Cohen and basically asking the public to dismiss what he’s saying by saying, ‘Look, this guy is just trying to get a better deal for himself, don’t believe him.’

But as Chris Christie pointed out, the Mueller investigation, Southern District of New York, they probably have a lot more evidence than just the word of Michael Cohen and that has to worry the president,” Stokols explained. “Yes, he and Rudy Giuliani on some level believe they can continue to attack the investigators, to try and convince the public that there’s something nefarious and something politically motivated about this,” he noted. “But when all the facts are laid out and people can see the investigators’ work, I think it’s going to be very problematic for this president.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill are also growing anxious.

“And there is some understanding, I think, inside the White House of just how dark it may be getting, especially in terms of conversations — private conversations — that people there are having with Republicans on the Hill who are starting to be concerned,” Stokols reported.

“Republican lawmakers who are — have a huge role to play in this if it goes forward — are starting to tell me privately, some of them, that, you know, if there’s obvious evidence, the bottom is going to fall out,” he explained.

“They’re not going to be able to stand by this White House and that’s a looming problem for the president,” he concluded.

Republican Fears Grow That Trump Is Leading Them To Doom In 2020 (PoliticusUSA link): Republicans are growing more fearful that Trump is not ready for what’s coming, and is leading his party into a 2020 disaster.

NBC News’s Geoff Bennett reported, “I can tell you there’s a growing fear. Certainly growing anxiety among Trump allies and Republicans that the White House is in no way prepared for the legal and political danger and drama that awaits and that the fall out could damage the party’s prospects in 2020. Why is that? You’ve got Democrats seizing control of Congress in three weeks time with subpoena power. There’s turmoil in the global financial market from the Trump trade war. You have the Russia investigation picking up speed, and you’ve got those new court filings out Friday implicating President Trump in a felony.”

There is a recession coming. The Russia investigations are getting stronger, not slowing down. In weeks, Democrats will control the House and be able to do whatever they want. Meanwhile, the White House is a neverending ball of chaos that continues to spin in circles while accomplishing nothing.

Republican governors have already been trying to warn their party that unless they get off of the Trump course, a disaster is coming in 2020. What the governors mean by disaster is that Republicans will lose the Senate, the White House, and state legislatures, and governors. The people in the Republican Party who are willing to see the reality of what’s coming are exponentially outnumbered by Trump Kool-Aid drinkers, and those who fear the president.

If Republicans thought that 2018 was a bad year for them, it might be the tip of the iceberg compared to what is coming their way in 2020. Democrats got a taste of victory in 2018, and now they want it all in 2020, and the Republican Party under Trump might be too unpopular to stop them.

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No "Smocking Gun?" Incoming top Democrats predict impeachment and jail time for Donald Trump

Mod: If Donald says there was no collusion, or a "smocking gun" if you must, that for me is pretty strong evidence that there was. But look, if Donny Two Fruits can be jailed over paying off Stormy Daniels alone? I'm good. Whatever it takes to lock him up.

Incoming top Democrats predict impeachment and jail time for Trump with increasing confidence (Business Insider link): The incoming chairs of two powerful House committees have predicted a "real prospect of jail time" for President Donald Trump, and said that new accusations about Michael Cohen's illegal hush payments are "impeachable offenses." Rep. Adam Schiff, the incoming chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told the CBS show "Face the Nation" on Sunday: "There's a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office the Justice Department may indict him, that he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time.

"We have been discussing the issue of pardons that the president may offer to people or dangle in front of people. The bigger pardon question may come down the road as the next president has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump."

Schiff was responding to the latest sentencing document from federal prosecutors on Friday, which said that longtime Trump lawyer and confidant Michael Cohen "acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1."

Individual-1 is widely believed to be Trump. The coordination relates to payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump.

"With respect to both payments, Cohen acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election," the memo said.

"In particular, and as Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1," it added. "As a result of Cohen's actions, neither woman spoke to the press prior to the election."

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, also told CNN that, if it is proved that Trump directed the payments, that would amount to "impeachable offenses."

Christie: "Feds Have Evidence Against Trump Beyond Cohen"(MSN.com link): Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said that President Donald Trump’s team should be concerned about the indictment against Michael Cohen because the language used in it suggests that federal prosecutors have further corroborating evidence.

"The language in the sentencing memo is different from what we've heard before," Christie explained. "The only thing that would concern me if I was the president's team this morning about this sentencing memo is the language."

"The language sounds very definite. And what I'd be concerned about is, what corroboration do they have?" he continued. “Because everyone knows that Michael Cohen is not going to be the most effective or trustworthy witness on the stand, given some of his past statements."

“When prosecutors sound that definitive they've got more usually than just one witness."

Lindsey the Prophet?

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