June 25, 2018

What is covfefe? (I wrote a thing)

What is covfefe?

How do I define covfefe? I don't. Covfefe is a made up word. Covfefe, by my best guess, is a typo that happened when Donald Trump (hereafter referred to as 45*, strictly in the interest of brevity) fell asleep while attempting to send out a tweet attacking the lying lugenpresse. You see, the problem with an active, investigative free-press is that they will tell the truth about your shady dealings with the Russian mob, so you've got to attack them and call them dishonest. That way, the moronic, Oxycontin-addled base that supports you will be more likely to disbelieve the press and believe your bullshit.

Covfefe is the result of a 72-year-old man's attempt to discredit the Fourth Estate. 45* was trying to let everyone know, once again, that the press had been unfair to him. *single tear* *tiny violin* And he was sending out a very important tweet to let everyone know it. The problem was that he fell asleep in the middle of tweeting (possibly on the toilet, we'll never know), and thus the non-word-word "covfefe" came into existence.

Covefe means nothing. Covfefe is not a word. Covfefe literally made Merriam-Webster throw up their hands and give up. Yes, I'm using the world literally loosely here, but if Merriam-Webster had arms, they would literally have thrown them up right here: https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/869782666572443648

So my best guess is that the dude had a brain fart and nodded out. But everyone has their theories. Hillary thought it was a secret message to the Russians: https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/31/politics/hillary-clinton-covfefe/index.html

The tweet in question occurred at 12:06 AM on May 31, 2018. It read, in it's entirety, "Despite the negative press covfefe". He attacked the media three times in tweets in March 2017 using the same word, "despite". I think this gives weight to my argument. This covfefe tweet was simply another attempt to discredit the Fourth Estate, one of the foundational pillars of our democracy. But then Agent Orange passed out on the can. Or maybe his short fat fingers couldn't hit the right keys on his twitter machine. Theories abound..

One theory is that he accidentally tweeted out the nuclear launch codes. Sean Spicer contributed to the nonsense with his answer: “I think the president and a small group of people knew exactly what he meant.” https://twitter.com/mviser/status/869989858768338944

45* himself, added fuel to the absurdity by deleting the original tweet and sending out a tweet the next day which read, "Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ??? Enjoy!" https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869858333477523458

Enjoy? Like we're supposed to get some kind of thrill out of attempting to decipher the moronic ramblings of an incoherent, doddering old dotard who fell asleep on the commode? Get real. Enjoy being impeached.

(This is only half finished. Posting on DU for feedback, thx.)


Either way, I'm changing my Twitter handle from StrictlyCovfefe to StrictlyChristo as soon as he's run out of office.

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/1011044486070218752

June 15, 2018

Right-wing outrage machine bullies FBI director into making biased statements that swing election.

"The right-wing outrage machine managed to bully the FBI director into breaking FBI policy so that he made biased statements to the media that pushed the election towards Donald Trump. The bullying worked & that's why they are still doing it."
Heard on Rachel Maddow just now #maddow

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/1007434229112684544

Rachel is doing god's work tonight.

June 14, 2018

"Holy shit! This idiot is saluting North Korean generals!"

North Korea state TV airs footage of Trump saluting North Korean military officer

http://thehill.com/policy/international/392241-north-korea-state-tv-airs-footage-of-trump-saluting-north-korean


https://twitter.com/christoq/status/1007353170891137024

June 12, 2018

Trump's allies are increasingly concerned about the prospect of Michael Cohen turning on him

*45's allies are becoming increasingly concerned about the prospect of Michael Cohen turning on the president.

http://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-official-says-trump-should-be-worried-about-michael-cohen-2018-6

Allies and advisers of President Donald Trump are reportedly getting more and more worried about the prospect of Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime lawyer, making a deal with prosecutors to turn on Trump.

Many think Cohen's troubles are as threatening to Trump as the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's election meddling and whether the Trump campaign had a role in it.

"Trump should be super worried about Michael Cohen," a former White House official told Vanity Fair. "If anyone can blow up Trump, it's him."

Vanity Fair described a source close to Cohen as saying Cohen had told he friends he "expects to be arrested any day now." When asked for comment by the publication, Cohen denied that.

June 12, 2018

Why are Republicans so determined to discourage people from voting? -WaPo

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ohios-voter-roll-purging-may-be-legal-that-doesnt-mean-its-right/2018/06/11/743c1cb4-6db3-11e8-bd50-b80389a4e569_story.html

Why are Republicans so determined to discourage people from voting?



THE SUPREME COURT on Monday upheld an Ohio law that allows state officials to purge voters from voter registration lists for dubious reasons. This is now a case of the law permitting one thing and common sense recommending another. Just because states can prune voting rolls the way Ohio has does not mean they should.

Ohio identifies voters for purging if they have failed to vote for two consecutive years, then it sends them a card asking if they are still living in the same place. If they fail to return the card and fail to vote for another four years, their names are struck from the rolls.

The National Voter Registration Act, also known as the motor voter law, forbids states from using nonvoting as the basis for removing a voter from the rolls. But the court majority found that states may use voter inactivity as “a rough way of identifying voters who may have moved,” as long as failing to vote is not the only criterion they use. Because Ohio also sends a card to registrants who have not voted for two years before purging them, the court found that the state satisfied the law’s requirements.


In a dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer lamented that Ohio’s policy “erects needless hurdles to voting” in a manner inconsistent with the intention of federal law to enable participation in the nation’s democracy. Though Ohio does not make nonvoting the sole criterion for removing a voter from the rolls, it does use it as the sole criterion for singling out voters for potential purging. A “person’s failure to vote is the sole basis on which the State identifies a registrant as a person whose address may have changed and the sole reason Ohio initiates a registered voter’s removal,” Mr. Breyer wrote. He continued, A “registrant who fails to vote in a single federal election, fails to respond to a forwardable notice, and fails to vote for another four years may well be purged.”


https://twitter.com/christoq/status/1006388390059634688

June 12, 2018

Trump just handed Kim Jong-Un a huge propaganda victory.

I feel like we're all being scammed by a conman. He gets some kind of good PR with his base from this, too. It's a gross sham of diplomacy. I see nothing but bullshit and grandstanding. Nothing substantive will come from this.

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/1006343710043353090

June 11, 2018

Justice Department attorneys argue 45* should be legally allowed to profit from foreign governments

http://theweek.com/speedreads/778351/doj-argues-trump-should-allowed-profit-from-hotels-because-no-corrupt-intent


DOJ argues Trump should be allowed to profit from his hotels because he has no 'corrupt intent'

Justice Department attorneys believe President Trump should be legally allowed to profit from foreign government officials during his presidency.

DOJ lawyers were arguing Monday to fight a lawsuit that accused Trump of using his businesses to violate constitutional laws that prevent elected officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments, BuzzFeed News reports. Foreign officials have said that they would visit Trump's hotels and various businesses to curry favor with the president, but Justice Department lawyers said that their intent wasn't important in determining whether the act was a bribe, so long as Trump didn't explicitly agree to give those foreign officials something in return.

The lawsuit, filed in Maryland, claims that Trump is violating the Constitution's foreign and domestic Emoluments Clauses, which state that no U.S. official "shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State," nor should they receive any other benefit from U.S. entities other than their salary.

But attorneys said that the federal judge should take a broader view of the clause, given that many presidents have "profited" from outside entities, both figuratively and literally, while in office. The profit Trump earns from foreign officials who visit his various hotels and golf resorts don't amount to a bribe, argued DOJ lawyers, because there was no "corrupt intent" and because it's hard to prove that Trump's foreign policy decisions are influenced by his business holdings.

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/1006291546130427905

June 8, 2018

New Mueller indictment: Konstantin Kilimnik

Special counsel Mueller indicts associate of Paul Manafort

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-counsel-mueller-indicts-associate-of-paul-manafort/2018/06/08/507ae696-6b44-11e8-bf8c-f9ed2e672adf_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.764f7c8fef6f&wpisrc=al_news__alert-politics--alert-national&wpmk=1

A longtime business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted Friday on charges he conspired to obstruct justice as investigators probed a past secret lobbying scheme on behalf of Ukraine.

Konstantin Kilimnik was charged in a superseding indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. The new charges revolve around allegations that he and Manafort tried to influence two potential witnesses in a case involving the failure to register as foreign lobbyists.

Those accusations are part of a recent effort by Mueller’s office to revoke or revise Manafort’s bail conditions while he awaits trial next month in northern Virginia. A hearing on the bail issue is scheduled for next week.

According to prosecutors, Manafort, Kilimnik and others in 2012 put together a lobbying effort with former European politicians referred to informally as the “Hapsburg group” to advocate on behalf of Ukraine to U.S. and European officials.


https://twitter.com/christoq/status/1005155972212387840

June 6, 2018

OMFG Why is Chris Matthews still going on about Bill Clinton today?

I mean WTF already? Can MSNBC give it a rest with beating this dead horse? Who wants to listen to 20 year old news???

I do not get it.